Safety in numbers
A few years ago, I got to attend a concert by former Pink Floyd leadsman Roger Waters. I'm a great fan of the work of both the group and the man, so I was thrilled.
One of the absolute musts at a concert of both the current Pink Floyd (in so much as that still exists) is of course "The Wall", so several songs from that album got played. Among others, there was "Run", a song that strongly refers to racist riots. As the mass of people around me got into the song, I could feel the mob mentality rising. Safety in numbers, my ass - this felt like people here would do any stupid thing that'd occur to the man on the stage.
The thing is, there is safety in numbers - safety from having to feel responsible. And that is the thing that happens in riots. Because there are so many people doing something - breaking into stores, throwing rocks at the police, trashing cars, and whatever else you care to come up with - no one person feels responsible anymore. After all, everyone else is doing it, so why should *you* feel responsible? So you go ahead and join in the chaos. After all, it's pretty satisfying to see and hear a window smash under your hands - or so I imagine, anyways, knowing the way I gloat when I hear my mage's fireballs hit in my computer games.
The other side of that medal is when people *don't* do something when they *should* be doing something. Like when people are hurt in a busy street and everyone just passes them by, or when no one intervenes when someone is getting beat up. People take their cues from people around them - if no one else is stopping, why should you? A stranger in the street isn't *your* responsibility, is he?
The way to break this is rather simple. Remind people of their responsibility. If you are the person being passed by, instead of the person passing by, call out, not to people in general, but to one specific person. The lady in the blue coat is far more likely to respond when you call to *her* instead of to the abstract general populace.
And if no one else is stopping, why should she? Because *she* is the one being called to.
One of the absolute musts at a concert of both the current Pink Floyd (in so much as that still exists) is of course "The Wall", so several songs from that album got played. Among others, there was "Run", a song that strongly refers to racist riots. As the mass of people around me got into the song, I could feel the mob mentality rising. Safety in numbers, my ass - this felt like people here would do any stupid thing that'd occur to the man on the stage.
The thing is, there is safety in numbers - safety from having to feel responsible. And that is the thing that happens in riots. Because there are so many people doing something - breaking into stores, throwing rocks at the police, trashing cars, and whatever else you care to come up with - no one person feels responsible anymore. After all, everyone else is doing it, so why should *you* feel responsible? So you go ahead and join in the chaos. After all, it's pretty satisfying to see and hear a window smash under your hands - or so I imagine, anyways, knowing the way I gloat when I hear my mage's fireballs hit in my computer games.
The other side of that medal is when people *don't* do something when they *should* be doing something. Like when people are hurt in a busy street and everyone just passes them by, or when no one intervenes when someone is getting beat up. People take their cues from people around them - if no one else is stopping, why should you? A stranger in the street isn't *your* responsibility, is he?
The way to break this is rather simple. Remind people of their responsibility. If you are the person being passed by, instead of the person passing by, call out, not to people in general, but to one specific person. The lady in the blue coat is far more likely to respond when you call to *her* instead of to the abstract general populace.
And if no one else is stopping, why should she? Because *she* is the one being called to.
posted by Geerte at 2:28 PM
1 Comments:
The psychology of crowds is a fascinating topic, and the way it allows for people to abdicate personal responsibility is of particular interest to me. One of the cases that always comes up when we discuss this topic in the states is the Kitty Genovese case...where a number of neighbors heard and saw a young woman murdered in the street below and no one helped her. Everyone assumed that someone else would help her, and no one did.
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