In 1964, 38 people in Queens, New York, witnessed the murder of one of their neighbors, a young woman named Kitty Genovese. A serial killer attacked and stabbed Genovese late one night outside her apartment house, and these 38 neighbors later admitted to hearing her screams; at least three said they saw part of the attack take place. Yet no one intervened.
Social Psychologists call this phenomena the Bystander Problem or Bystander Dilemma or Bystander Effect. I believe the same effect happens in “Reply All” email communication.
Shortly after the incident, psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latané sought to understand this phenomena: How can a handful of people aware of a murder fail to do nothing — how can rational people choose to not help another human being? In answering this thesis, they arrived at one of the most replicable social experiments even to this day.
Cubicle-Seizure Study
College students sat in a cubicle and were instructed to talk with fellow students through an intercom. They were told that they would be speaking with one, two, or six other students, and only one person could use the intercom at a time. There was actually only one other person in the study — a confederate (someone working with the researchers). Early in the study, the confederate mentioned that he sometimes suffered from seizures. The next time he spoke, he became increasingly loud and incoherent; he pretended to choke and gasp. Before falling silent, he stammered:
If someone could help me out it would it would er er s-s-sure be sure be good… because er there er er a cause I er I uh I’ve got a a one of the er sei-er-er things coming on and and and I could really er use some help … I’m gonna die er er I’m gonna die er help er er seizure er ….
The results of the experiment:
- Of the 2 person room, 85% left their cubicles to help.
- Of the 3 person room, 62% left their cubicles to help.
- Of the 6 person room, 31% left their cubicles to help.
Diffusion and Confusion of Responsibility
Notice that the more humans there were, the likelihood of receiving help decreases — there appears to be an inverse relationship between the likelihood of receiving help and the presence of other humans. John Darley and Bibb Latané believed that the root cause of this behavior is attributed to a Diffusion and Confusion of Responsibility.
Smoke Room Study
Another experiment:
They asked participants to fill out questionnaires in a laboratory room. After the participants had gotten to work, smoke filtered into the room — a clear signal of danger. How would the participants respond if they were alone versus if they were accompanied by other humans?
The results:
- When alone, 75% percent left the room and reported the smoke.
- With 3 people in the room, 38% percent left to report the smoke.
- With two confederates (working with psychologists) instructed not to show any concern, 10% reported the smoke.
In two seperate and distinct studies shown above, the results were similar. John Darley and Bibb Latané conducted many more similar studies and other social psychologists have done a number of novel studies since, and the results are starkly similar and behavior is depressingly predictive: When others are involved, most of us are Bystanders.
Most of us are Bystanders
“Reply All”
In a business setting, the most egregious situation that invites Bystander behavior is the “Reply All” email. When others are included in the “To” field, I submit most of us either glance the email or delete it wholesale.
Why?
John Darley and Bibb Latané would most likely attribute that response to a diffusion of responsibility — when many people are included in the email, we’re either confused of the request or believe that the request will be satisfied by one of the people for which that email was addressed — we believe that at least 1 of the 15 people will respond.
Unfortunately, this assumption is often wrong.
Indeed, when we engage in this type of email communication, we are creating an environment in which we invite others to be Bystanders.
We sometimes create an environment in which we invite others to be Bystanders – we are sometimes the root cause for others Bystanding
Anti-Bystander Behavior
Fortunately in the email communication space, the countermeasure to Bystander behavior is simple:
- Address only the relevant people in an email – and not too many people
- Address, by name, the person to whom you are requesting advice, help, or approval
- Be clear, concise, and make your request explicit — do not leave the recipient guessing
In this setting, the countermeasure is simple, intuitive, effective — but it’s not simplistic.
Conclusion
Let us not create business environments that encourage bystander behavior — let us act for good, let us do good, and allow others to do the same.
Share This Post:
Hiding unnecessary information from a customer is good business. Have you ever had an interaction with a business, where your goal was to get served, but instead the business shares their problems with you? Were you left thinking “I’ve got problems of my own, I don’t need or care to know yours. Just give me my hamburger already.” Encapsulation is an elegant and simple principle to ease the burden on your customer by subtracting or covering the unnecessary and adding the meaningful.
The Hidden Factory is a term that refers to activities in an operation that were not designed into it, but grew over time as workarounds for the current process. Most organizations have some form of a Hidden Factory and being able to “see” these hidden factories in an organization requires learning to see what waste is and understanding that waste in any operation — service or manufacturing — can be a substantial drain on the bottom line, top line, on employee morale, shareholders and, most importantly, the customer.
Most people or organizations do not, by design, create a product or service with the goal of “making the most complex product that nobody can use”. In other words, rarely do we see purposeful complexity but instead we see much 
I resigned from eBay and I’m happily joining 
Earlier this week, I went to Jiffy Lube to get my oil change. I once worked for a person responsible for the redesign of many waiting rooms in various industries, so I went with an observant eye, looking for the items that he taught me about in his 
In a very tough economy, keeping customers happy should have more considerable weight and attention from companies. I had a negative customer experience recently at Home Depot, where they had a chance to redeem themselves from a very poor customer experience.
Last night, I was on the floor playing with my toddler and I noticed that he was shaking a maraca — so we had a daddy/baby jam session, with me tapping on the carpet and with him shaking the maraca. Then, I noticed what the maraca said: “AIG - Sun America”.
My 
In this very tough economic environment, organizations turn more and more focus on the Profit Tree. The course of history shows us that zeitgeist — or the movement of history at certain points of time — is a cascading phenomena where the collective focus and worldview is taken-on by large groups of people.
I had an experience recently where I spoke with a group of friends and acquaintances about the economy and the existential despair that is all around us. Then, a friend said something that shocked me:
A few weeks ago, I posted on my experience with 
I’d venture to say that most people don’t have a desire to call 
Let’s face it: sometimes, people vote not based on character, policy position, or anything else that might be important or substantial. Sometimes, people vote for a candidate because of the candidates’ fashion sense.
