Catherine Sanderson - The Bystander Effect

The Psychology of Courage and Inaction

William Collins

An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

WilliamCollinsBooks.com

HarperCollins Publishers

1st Floor, Watermarque Building, Ringsend Road

Dublin 4, Ireland

This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2020

Copyright © Catherine A. Sanderson 2020

Cover design by Steve Leard

Catherine A. Sanderson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins

Source ISBN: 9780008361662

Ebook Edition © April 2020 ISBN: 9780008361648

Version: 2021-01-13

TO ANDREW, ROBERT, AND CAROLINE,

with hope that you will never stay silent about things that matter

Contents

Cover

Title Page THE BYSTANDER EFFECT The Psychology of Courage and Inaction

Copyright Copyright Copyright Dedication Preface I. The Silence of the Good People 1. The Myth of Monsters 2. Who Is Responsible? 3. The Perils of Ambiguity 4. The Considerable Costs of Helping 5. The Power of Social Groups II. Bullies and Bystanders 6. At School: Standing Up to Bullies 7. In College: Reducing Sexual Misconduct 8. At Work: Fostering Ethical Behavior III. Learning to Act 9. Understanding Moral Rebels 10. Becoming a Moral Rebel Notes Index Acknowledgements About the Author About the Publisher William Collins An imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF WilliamCollinsBooks.com HarperCollins Publishers 1st Floor, Watermarque Building, Ringsend Road Dublin 4, Ireland This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2020 Copyright © Catherine A. Sanderson 2020 Cover design by Steve Leard Catherine A. Sanderson asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Source ISBN: 9780008361662 Ebook Edition © April 2020 ISBN: 9780008361648 Version: 2021-01-13

Dedication Dedication Dedication Preface I. The Silence of the Good People 1. The Myth of Monsters 2. Who Is Responsible? 3. The Perils of Ambiguity 4. The Considerable Costs of Helping 5. The Power of Social Groups II. Bullies and Bystanders 6. At School: Standing Up to Bullies 7. In College: Reducing Sexual Misconduct 8. At Work: Fostering Ethical Behavior III. Learning to Act 9. Understanding Moral Rebels 10. Becoming a Moral Rebel Notes Index Acknowledgements About the Author About the Publisher TO ANDREW, ROBERT, AND CAROLINE, with hope that you will never stay silent about things that matter

Preface

I. The Silence of the Good People

1. The Myth of Monsters

2. Who Is Responsible?

3. The Perils of Ambiguity

4. The Considerable Costs of Helping

5. The Power of Social Groups

II. Bullies and Bystanders

6. At School: Standing Up to Bullies

7. In College: Reducing Sexual Misconduct

8. At Work: Fostering Ethical Behavior

III. Learning to Act

9. Understanding Moral Rebels

10. Becoming a Moral Rebel

Notes

Index

Acknowledgements

About the Author

About the Publisher

On August 25, 2017, my husband and I spent the day settling in our oldest child, Andrew, for the start of his first year at college. We went to Walmart to buy a minifridge and rug. We hung posters above his bed. We attended the obligatory goodbye family lunch before returning to our car to head home to a slightly quieter house.

Two weeks later Andrew called, which was unusual since, like most teenagers, he vastly prefers texting. His voice breaking, he told me that a student in his dorm had just died.

As he described it on the phone, the two of them seemed to have so much in common. They were both freshmen. They were both from Massachusetts and had attended rival prep schools. They both had younger brothers.

“What happened?” I asked.

He told me the student had been drinking alcohol with friends. He got drunk, and around 9 p.m. on Saturday, he fell and hit his head. His friends, roommate, and lacrosse teammates watched over him for many hours. They strapped a backpack around his shoulders to keep him from rolling onto his back, vomiting, and then choking to death. They periodically checked to make sure he was still breathing.

But what they didn’t do—for nearly twenty hours after the fall—was call 911.

By the time they finally did seek help, at around 4 p.m. on Sunday, it was too late. The student was taken to a hospital and put on life support so that his family could fly in to say goodbye.

Now, it’s impossible to know whether prompt medical attention could have saved his life. Perhaps it wouldn’t have. But what is clear is that he didn’t get that opportunity. And this story—of college students failing to do anything in the face of a serious emergency—is hardly unusual.

It’s not just college students who choose not to act, even when the stakes are high. Why did most passengers sit silently when a man was forcibly dragged off a United Airlines flight, recorded on a video that then went viral? What leads people to stay silent when a colleague uses derogatory language or engages in harassing behavior? Why did so many church leaders fail to report sexual abuse by Catholic priests for so many years?