Psychology I / The Bystander Effect and the Diffusion of Responsibility
Practice question · Match the pairs

Match each clue to what it identifies.

  • Help is most likely here, because responsibility cannot be shared with anyone
  • The step where 'nobody else looks worried, so it must be nothing' does its damage
  • The step where 'somebody else will handle it' does its damage
  • Naming one bystander and giving them a specific instruction
  • Interpreting the event as an emergency
  • A single witness, alone with the victim
  • The intervention that repairs the responsibility step
  • Assuming personal responsibility
Hints
  1. Two clues are quotations from a witness's inner monologue - each belongs to a different step of the chain.
  2. One clue describes a fix rather than a failure: ask which step it targets.
Show the answer
  • Help is most likely here, because responsibility cannot be shared with anyone → A single witness, alone with the victim
  • The step where 'nobody else looks worried, so it must be nothing' does its damage → Interpreting the event as an emergency
  • The step where 'somebody else will handle it' does its damage → Assuming personal responsibility
  • Naming one bystander and giving them a specific instruction → The intervention that repairs the responsibility step
Why

Misreading calm faces blocks the interpretation step; 'someone else will do it' blocks the responsibility step; being alone removes both problems; and direct address is the standard practical fix, because it reassigns responsibility to one named person who can no longer pass it on.

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