Investigating the bystander effect using virtual reality
Friday, January 11, 2013 - 11:00
in Psychology & Sociology
The bystander effect is well-known in behavioural psychology and suggests that the more people who witnessing a violent emergency the less likely it is that someone will intervene. It was first identified in the 1960s, but conducting research on the phenomenon has been difficult. Most experiments rely upon staging fake emergencies or violent encounters using actors, but it is tricky to gauge how genuine a response is.