The Bystander Effect: How to Overcome Our Worst Psychological Trait

Back in 2011, an extremely sad story took place in China. On the 13th of October, a two-year old girl by the name of Wang Yue accidentally wandered out into traffic and was struck by a vehicle. Shortly after, she was hit by a second vehicle. As she lay there bleeding on the road for more than seven minutes, no less than 18 people walk past her small, bleeding body laying there. Rather than calling for help, these people continued on with their day as though nothing was happening.

But maybe this was just something that would only happen in China, right? Surely, that couldn’t happen here in the states. Not quite. Back in 1964, Kitty Genovese was returning home at about 3 am after her shift a local bar in Queens, New York. After parking her car and walking to her nearby apartment, a man brutally stabbed her. As she screamed, lights from the surrounding apartments turned on, and the man fled, but nobody called the police. Shortly after, the man returned to stab Genovese again. He left and returned one more time to finish stabbing her, and the first call to the police didn’t come in until 3:50 am.

There is some debate about the story of Kitty Genovese, but there are countless stories identical to the ones of Kitty and two-year-old Wang Yue. For anyone with an ounce of empathy, these stories break our hearts…