The Bystander Effect

This week we will be starting Gabriel Garcia Marquez' novella Chronicle of a Death Foretold in English II. Marquez, often considered the grandfather of magical realism, gives us the story of the killing of Santiago Nasar in a small Colombian village. Before he is killed, multiple members of the community know about the plot to murder him, but no one acts to save him. Santiago seems to be well-liked by members of the community, so we, as readers, must ask ourselves why no one steps in to save Santiago.

The "bystander effect" is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to a group of people refusing to help during an emergency situation at risk of becoming involved. Based off of the bystander effect, it is believed that the average person only helps about 20% of the time if other people are around and that, in the face of an emergency, a distressed person is less likely to be helped if others are around.

For this week's blog prompt, I want you to think about the bystander effect. I'm going to give you a hypothetical situation in which you write a 1-2 paragraph response explaining how you would act and why.

Here is the hypothetical situation:

Suppose you are a prairie dog assigned to guard duty with other prairie dogs from your town. When you see a predator coming you have two choices: sound the alarm or remain silent. If you sound the alarm, you help ensure the safety of the other prairie dogs, but you also encourage the predator to come for you. For you, it is safer to remain silent, but if all guards remain silent, everyone is less safe, including you. What should you do when you see a predator?