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[Doomchild-]

the sad thing is... when watching this I felt a lot of things... but not surprise... even the 'justification' for driving on (basically, if the girl died it would cost him less) didn't surprise me...
dont get me wrong, there are a lot of great people out there, but as a whole... i lost faith in the human race long ago...

[Svarte Troner]

This is a prime example of the bystander effect. Sure, it's really a pitiful reflection of human psychology, but things like this happen all the time. Not to sound morbid or anything, but if you were to leave your relatively comfortable life and live in sub-saharan Africa for example, you'd see things like this every day, and there would be nothing you could do about it.

Oh my fucking god. Those people... fuck them. They can sexually assaulted, ground into mush, that mush burned and then sent to hell. This is the worst thing I have seen in my life.

You may say that you would have helped, but 19 people ignored this girl. I doubt you are very much different from those 19 people and chances are you would have "ignored" this as well. It's not like those people were evil, they were scared and felt that someone else would help the girl (again, the bystander effect).

[MetalSlimeHunt]

You may say that you would have helped, but 19 people ignored this girl. I doubt you are very much different from those 19 people and chances are you would have "ignored" this as well. It's not like those people were evil, they were scared and felt that someone else would help the girl (again, the bystander effect).

But most people here know about the bystander effect. We already know that if you are aware of the placebo effect and discover that what you are taking is a placebo it ceases to help you, so would those who know about the bystander effect also be "freed" from it?

By the way, that might make a good thesis experiment, if any of you are majoring in psychology.

[TheBronzePickle]

The issue with the bystander effect is that if you're not running on logic (someone who sees a toddler getting run over probably isn't going to be) you're probably not going to think about it until afterwards.

That doesn't mean that you can't resist the bystander effect, however, you just have to be trained to resist it on impulse.

[sonerohi]

I feel awful for the girl and her family. But I don't hold the passerby accountable in the slightest. And honestly, I would be a passerby in that scenario. I wish I could honestly say that I would stop and help, but I'm typing this twenty minutes after I watched it, having had time to calm down and detach myself. I can run pretty far in twenty minutes.

[Telgin]

I haven't watched the video, since I'm at work, but that does indeed sound quite horrible.  The explanation as to why it happened is even worse.

It's things like this that make me wonder just how far humanity will make it before it's strangled by the psychological holdovers from our ancient past.  In order to survive as cavemen we had to be selfish.  We had to hoard our resources and only render help to those in our "group".  To do otherwise would endanger your future.

There is enough "wealth" in the world that this need never be the case now, but because of the way humans are programmed we can't do that.  We could never spread all of the world's wealth evenly among everyone.  It just couldn't happen, because people are people.  There are just too many people who will do whatever they think they can get away with to put themselves at an advantage to everyone else.

The bit about even needing good Samaritan laws is another prime example here.  There shouldn't have to be a law protecting you from trying to help someone.  But people are people.  I understand that China is different from the US, and there are a million nuances to the Chinese situation that I'll never know or understand, but that transcends culture and place.

The unfortunate part is that by it being part of our nature, I don't know if we'll ever be able to overcome it entirely.  The only real solutions would either have just as many drawbacks or would never be accepted (such as forced worldwide directed evolution, how would you even accomplish that?)


Wow, that was a tangent, so at the expense of having wasted a small essay, I'll say that I don't know what I would have done in that situation.  In all honesty, I'd have probably done the same thing as the onlookers (if close to a score people did something, there's surely a reason behind it).  I would like to think that I would at least notify emergency personnel, but I have no idea how that works in China and for all I know one of the onlookers actually did this.  There's not a lot else you really can do and make a difference.

[Jacob/Lee]

Evil, evil people. Those two drivers can rot in hell, alongside all the people who just ignored her.

[Dsarker]

I could never just walk away from that.

I couldn't walk away from that if it was an animal, let alone a toddler.

I don't understand how anyone, let alone so many, could do this.

Money? I'm sorry, but if you see a 2 year old bleeding and writing in pain on the road, and your first thought is "Ehh, I could lose some money over this, better keep walking." then, seriously, **** you.

What if your first thought is that people are doing it deliberately, that the kid isn't in danger, and if you try to help, you'll be sued out of a house, you'll lose your job, and starve on the streets?

[SalmonGod]

I already know I'm too altruistic for my own good.  I've been tested on it.  I shouldn't even be posting on this subject, because I know if I actually watch that video, I'll get outraged too.  I got outraged at the bystanders in another recent video watching a group of cops beat a homeless man to death.  This one would just kill me.

[SirAaronIII]

I'll admit, I wouldn't have done anything. Either out of laziness or just not wanting to get my hands dirty or whatever.

But how did a 2-year old get out of sight/reach of its parents? If that were my kid, I would have kept them near me at all times rather than let them wander about.

[Dsarker]

What if your first thought is that people are doing it deliberately, that the kid isn't in danger, and if you try to help, you'll be sued out of a house, you'll lose your job, and starve on the streets?

Man, my eyes water when I step on snails accidentally.

I can not even begin to relate to that line of thought. I'd be way too worried to be skeptic, and later on I'd probably be overwhelmed with regret if I hadn't helped.

*Shrug.*

I'm not saying that you're wrong, or that your thinking isn't correct. But there is an insane logic in their behaviour.

And I hate that it is there.

[Bohandas]

The unfortunate part is that by it being part of our nature, I don't know if we'll ever be able to overcome it entirely.  The only real solutions would either have just as many drawbacks or would never be accepted (such as forced worldwide directed evolution, how would you even accomplish that?)

Well, the last time it was tried it involved first gathering several thousand canisters of Zyklon B, and then...

[SalmonGod]

It's cynicism.  It's one of the worst problems with humanity.  People act without compassion because they feel they must because they assume everyone else will act without compassion.  People have mountains of unspoken fear about each other that are mostly due to lack of communication.  Paranoia that could be cleared up so easily if people would just be straightforward and honest with each other.  And it becomes self-fulfilling prophecy when someone does something horrible because they believe they must to prevent someone else from doing something horrible to them.

[darkflagrance]

What if your first thought is that people are doing it deliberately, that the kid isn't in danger, and if you try to help, you'll be sued out of a house, you'll lose your job, and starve on the streets?

Man, my eyes water when I step on snails accidentally.

I can not even begin to relate to that line of thought. I'd be way too worried to be skeptic, and later on I'd probably be overwhelmed with regret if I hadn't helped.

*Shrug.*

If we assume that humans all have the capability for morality, imagine what the difference in upbringing and environment must be to create a society like that, where cold pragmatism prevails over empathy.

Or perhaps there are segments of the population that should be rightfully purged after all...

[sonerohi]

What if your first thought is that people are doing it deliberately, that the kid isn't in danger, and if you try to help, you'll be sued out of a house, you'll lose your job, and starve on the streets?

Man, my eyes water when I step on snails accidentally.

I can not even begin to relate to that line of thought. I'd be way too worried to be skeptic, and later on I'd probably be overwhelmed with regret if I hadn't helped.

*Shrug.*

If we assume that humans all have the capability for morality, imagine what the difference in upbringing and environment must be to create a society like that, where cold pragmatism prevails over empathy.

Or perhaps there are segments of the population that should be rightfully purged after all...

Nope. We are judging those passer-by by fourteen seconds. A blink within their lifetime. Insignificant in the scope of humanity. We don't know them in the slightest. No one is truly irredeemable.