Quote:
Originally Posted by Solace
I saw this new story yesterday on CNN, where some retarded psychologist tried to explain how society is so desensitized to violence because of games and movies that people don't know how to react when it happens in real life. Bull crap...it's just a lack of knowledge of what to do in fucked up situations. Did you know that one of the reasons why heart attacks are so fatal is because most bystanders don't know CPR? The survival rate for heart attack victims who receive CPR while paramedics are en route versus those who gawk is significant.
Sorry, not everyone is so uncaring. If I had seen that man on the street, I would have called 911 as soon as possible. |
Please send me your contact details. If and when I do take charge of conducting a social experiment that will likely emotionally scar you for life and probably give you grounds to sue me for unethical research methods, I will make sure to call you up and ask for your interest in being a participant.
I'm actually not too surprised at this latest case of apathy from a group of people actually; the
bystander effect has been well known and extensively studied in the field of social psychology ever since
as far back as 1964; this, really, is just the latest case of that.
Therefore, I would contradict
Solace's argument that the reason heart attacks are so often fatal is because bystanders don't know CPR; I would say it's more likely that
a group of people would look at each other and gauge the necessity of action from each other's behaviour; because everyone ends up doing the same thing i.e. nothing, no one will take the initiative.
An alternative reason would be that
the individuals in the same group of people all assume that someone else is going to or has already intervened, and thus refraining themselves from intervening. This is especially so if they believe that for example, someone else has already called the police, or someone else is a doctor and can provide superior assistance to themselves, etc. etc., which means they might be offering unwanted assistance.
I'll not be so quick to condemn the people in the video (except perhaps the camphone kid, and even then....). It's an unfortunate effect of our psychological makeup, and one which thankfully
can be superseded; by someone who is
aware of this psychological effect, and can overcome it by taking the initative to help the person, and asking others to assist however they can (e.g. ask that guy over that to call the cops, ask if anyone in the group's a doctor or nurse, etc. etc.).