The bystander effect is a social psychological phenomenon whereby an individual will not intervene to help when other people are present. Researchers say that this phenomenon is related to the number of bystanders present. When there is a great number of bystanders around, there is less likely, help will be offered to someone in need.

This is due to the fact that when there is a large number of people around, other people assume that someone else will jump in to offer assistance, especially if there are many others around who could potentially do so. 

 The presence of others makes one feel less personally responsible for responding to events and each additional person present lowers the chances of anyone helping at all. 

A second mechanism behind the bystander effect is the reliance upon others to help interpret ambiguous circumstances. When alone, individuals are responsible for deciding how to respond appropriately to a situation. But when there are others present, we look to them for guidance, especially when an unusual or novel event is occurring, (such as an emergency). Unfortunately, this can cause everyone in the situation to assume that nothing needs to be done, if no one else is doing anything at the moment (an effect referred to as “pluralistic ignorance”).

Source: http://heroicimagination.org/research/what-we-know-about-heroism/social-psychology/bystander-effect-and-diffusion/

The video below shows how social psychology can effect other peoples movement.

Some notable examples that have relations with the bystander effects.

Brooklyn Hospital Case
In June 2008 a woman collapsed in a Brooklyn hospital waiting room, but was ignored by other people present in the room and two security guards. People tried to help her only after an hour had passed. The woman died.



Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax
In April 2010 Hugo Alfredo Tale-Yax was stabbed to death in New York City after coming to the aid of a woman who was being attacked by a robber. Yax was on the sidewalk for more than an hour before firefighters arrived. Almost twenty-five people walked by while he lay dying on a sidewalk in Queens, several stared at Yax, one of them took pictures, however none of them helped or called emergency services.


Wang Yue
In October 2011, a two-year-old girl, Wang Yue, was hit by a small, white van in the city of Foshan, China, then run over by a large truck when she was not moved by bystanders. A total of 18 people ignored her, some going so far as to walk around the blood, and the girl was left for 7 minutes before a recycler, Chen Xianmei, picked up the toddler and called for help.


Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect

As a way to educate the audience and show them what is bystander effect and how does people react to such situations, I need to create a way that they can see visual content in the form of text or graphic, or even motion video.