Don’t stand by and do nothing — YOU can be a hero in a crisis

KITTY Genovese was a 28-year-old New York bar manager whose rape and murder outside her own front door in the early hours of a March morning in 1964 became a textbook case for psychologists.

According to stories in the press, 38 people saw or heard the attack but no one came to her aid or called the police.

Analysis of their reaction — or failure to react — became known as the ‘Genovese effect’ or ‘bystander effect’, a psychological phenomenon whereby individuals are less likely to come to the aid of another if there are, or they think there are, others around who might do so.

I was reminded of Kitty last week when I came across a survey which found that a third of people wouldn’t attempt CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) on someone who collapsed in the street in front of them.

Some admitted they wouldn’t even call an ambulance. They were content to remain bystanders to a crisis.

Various psychological factors contribute to the bystander effect, with people assuming others will intervene — what is known as a ‘diffusion of responsibility’.

Or ‘pluralistic ignorance’ comes into play: since no one is reacting to the emergency, witnesses feel that they don’t need to either, and anyway it can’t be that serious, otherwise someone would be doing something, wouldn’t they?

Others say they do not feel qualified or senior enough to be the one to take the lead.

But there can be consequences. People who’ve been bystanders at a serious incident can be haunted by feelings of guilt or horror that they didn’t do anything, or didn’t realise how serious it was.

The good news is that you can avoid becoming a bystander. Studies show that once people are aware of the bystander effect, they’re less likely to exhibit it. That was certainly my experience.

One evening, I was waiting on a platform as a train was pulling into the station. The doors opened and I saw a woman to my right boarding with her son, who was probably four or five years old, and was trailing behind her.

There was a large gap between the platform and the train, and he missed the step and fell through. As the doors closed, there was a collective scream from the commuters who remained on the platform and saw what had happened.

Thankfully, the train didn’t move — but there wasn’t a guard in sight, and the doors remained firmly closed.

It dawned on me that no one wanted to take charge of the situation. We were all waiting to see who would react first. Yet the train might still pull out at any moment, the driver unaware of what had just happened.

I realised I was seeing what I’d only read about before — the bystander effect — and it galvanised me into action.

I ran to the edge of the platform and peered down, fearing the worst for the child. ‘I dropped my Maltesers,’ the little boy staring up at me said. I knelt down and hauled him up onto the platform. The train doors opened and his mother ran forward and scooped him up. He was fine, barely shaken — unlike me, his mother and the commuters watching on the platform.

It taught me a valuable lesson. When faced with an emergency in a public place, ask yourself how you’d behave if you were on your own. Don’t worry about what anyone else is doing. Ignore them and go with your gut instinct.

The worst that can happen is you might look a little foolish for having over-reacted.

And the best? You might just save someone’s life.