“Research has shown that the bystander effect is often motivated by diffusion of responsibility, when different people witnessing an emergency all assume someone else will help.”

— Philip G. Zimbardo

"The Banality of Heroism" in The Greater Good (Fall/Winter 2006/2007), co-written with Zeno Franco
Context: The idea of the banality of heroism debunks the myth of the “heroic elect,” a myth that reinforces two basic human tendencies. The first is to ascribe very rare personal characteristics to people who do something special — to see them as superhuman, practically beyond comparison to the rest of us. The second is the trap of inaction — sometimes known as the "bystander effect." Research has shown that the bystander effect is often motivated by diffusion of responsibility, when different people witnessing an emergency all assume someone else will help. Like the “good guards,” we fall into the trap of inaction when we assume it’s someone else’s responsibility to act the hero.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Research has shown that the bystander effect is often motivated by diffusion of responsibility, when different people w…" by Philip G. Zimbardo?

Philip G. Zimbardo 11

American social psychologist, author of Stanford Prison Exp… 1933

Related quotes

“Of all questions, why? is the least pertinent. It begs the question; it assumes the larger part of its own response; to wit, that a sensible response exists.”

Jack Vance Dying Earth

"Morreion", chapter 8
Dying Earth (1950-1984), Rhialto the Marvellous (1984)

“Successful people in the workplace like to recognise and to congratulate those around them. Too often we forget to thank and to recognize when someone else has done a great job.”

Nigel Cumberland (1967) British author and leadership coach

Source: Your Job-Hunt Ltd – Advice from an Award-Winning Asian Headhunter (2003), Successful Recruitment in a Week (2012) https://books.google.ae/books?idp24GkAsgjGEC&printsecfrontcover&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIGjAA#vonepage&qnigel%20cumberland&ffalse, Managing Teams in a Week (2013) https://books.google.ae/books?idqZjO9_ov74EC&printsecfrontcover&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIIDAB#vonepage&qnigel%20cumberland&ffalse, Secrets of Success at Work – 50 techniques to excel (2014) https://books.google.ae/books?id4S7vAgAAQBAJ&printsecfrontcover&dqnigel+cumberland&hlen&saX&ved0ahUKEwjF75Xw0IHNAhULLcAKHazACBMQ6AEIJjAC#vonepage&qnigel%20cumberland&ffalse, p.51

“The good effects that emanate from the same source are equally diffused upon the earth. Different regions become partakers in these benefits in different ways”

Julian (emperor) (331–363) Roman Emperor, philosopher and writer

Upon the Sovereign Sun (362)
Context: The good effects that emanate from the same source are equally diffused upon the earth. Different regions become partakers in these benefits in different ways; so that neither their production comes to an end, nor does the Deity confer his blessings upon the recipient world with any degree of variation. For where the substance is the same, so is the action thereof, in the case of Divine Powers; especially with him who is king of them all, namely, the Sun; of whom the motion is the most simple amongst all the bodies that move in a contrary direction to the world, which fact that most excellent philosopher, Aristotle, adduces to prove the superiority of that luminary to the others.

“Everything good that has happened to me has happened as a direct result of helping someone else. Everything.”

Danny Trejo (1944) Mexican American actor

"Actor Danny Trejo saves a trapped baby from an overturned car" https://kfor.com/2019/08/07/actor-danny-trejo-saves-a-trapped-baby-from-an-overturned-car/ (August 7, 2019)

“Campbell (1979) has shown how the learning theory developed in the tight research group surrounding Kenneth Spence was less powerful than the learning theory developed within the much looser group surrounding Edward Tolman. These differences are explained in part by the relative ease people in Tolman's group had evaluating and changing ideas without regard for the effect of these changes on their reputations and the relative difficulty people in Spence's group had when they tried to do the same thing.”

Karl E. Weick (1936) Organisational psychologist

Karl E. Weick, " Drop your tools : An allegory for organizational studies http://www19.homepage.villanova.edu/gregory.gull/MBA8510.html/DropTools_Weick.htm." Administrative Science Quarterly. v41 n2. Jun 1996. p. 301-31
1980s-1990s

“Recent research in social psychology has shown that happy people are not people who have more; rather, they are people who are happy with what they already have. Happy people engage in satisficing all of the time, even if they don’t know it.”

Daniel Levitin book The Organized Mind

The Organized Mind (2014)

“My teachers helped guide and motivate me; but the responsibility of learning was left with me.”

Joseph E. Stiglitz (1943) American economist and professor, born 1943.

Autobiographical Essay (2001)

“All transformation appears to be motivated by desperation and emergency.”

Elizabeth Gilbert (1969) American writer

Source: The Signature of All Things

“Here is the bottom line. When we are dealing with this crisis, we need to listen to the scientists, to the researchers, to the medical folks, not politicians. We need an emergency response to this crisis and we need it now.”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

2020-03-12
Now Is the Time for Solidarity: Bernie Sanders Addresses Health and Economic Crisis Facing US as Coronavirus Spreads
Jake Johnson
Common Dreams
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/12/now-time-solidarity-bernie-sanders-addresses-health-and-economic-crisis-facing-us
2020

“I help people as a way to work on myself, and I work on myself to help people… To me, that’s what the emerging game is all about.”

Ram Dass (1931–2019) American contemporary spiritual teacher and the author of the 1971 book Be Here Now

As quoted in "Baba Ram Dass in the realm of Visionary Artist Martina Hoffmann: in the end there’s only one spirit and one humanness", by yeye, at Elephant Journal (9 October 2010) https://www.elephantjournal.com/2010/09/baba-ram-dass-in-the-realm-of-visionary-artist-martina-hoffmann-in-the-end-theres-only-one-spirit-and-one-humanness/

“Research has shown that the bystander effect is often motivated by diffusion of responsibility, when different people witnessing an emergency all assume someone else will help.”

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Philip G. Zimbardo 11

Related quotes

Related topics