Practice question · Multiple choice
First-aid courses teach you to point at one person and say "you, in the red coat, call an ambulance." Which mechanism does that defeat, and how?
Hints
- Before you point, how much of the duty does each bystander feel? Afterwards?
- There are two bystander mechanisms. This instruction targets the one about obligation.
Show the answer
C. Diffusion of responsibility, since naming assigns the duty
Why
The duty stops being divisible the moment it has a name attached. Shouting that this IS an emergency attacks the other mechanism, pluralistic ignorance, which is why the full instruction does both, and why the advice is oddly specific about the red coat.
Practise The Bystander Effect and the Diffusion of Responsibility
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