Integrity: Doing the Right Thing When No One is Watching

There is no doubt -- humanity has problems that are recognized but unaddressed. One recurring theme throughout history is the bystander effect. 

As the name suggests, the bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a psychological response to high levels of conflict, in which the bystander does not intervene. Albeit shameful, this "lack of reaction” is something one can admit to doing at some point in his or her life. 

An experiment by Latané and Darley in 1970 tested this concept and found three similar processes among participants: diffusion of responsibility, evaluation apprehension, and pluralistic ignorance. The first is the tendency to divide the responsibility of the situation at hand to the number of people in the area. The second is an intense fear of being criticized, while the third is the reliance of how others in the crowd react. Even by personal anecdote, everyone has had been in at least one of these situations. 

What can be done to fix this societal sickness? Kendra Cherry of VeryWell Mind recommends recognizing signs that may promote proper bystander intervention. Some steps include gaining professional skills to aid someone in need, increasing empathy to understand the consequences to the victim if one does not help, and partaking in the altruistic behavior everyone is inherently born with. The innate desire to reach out and help the needy should not be ignored, especially when there is an extremely high risk of danger or harm to the person at hand or those around them. 

So, the next time you go about the halls or classroom and see a peer in need, take that inner leap of faith, ignore what others may think of you, and do the right thing.