Walking down the busy Manhattan street, Katie faints; even though she is part of a large group of people, no one stops to help her. This phenomenon is called the “bystander effect.” A bystander is often anyone who has passed by, witnessed or even participated in a certain situation (Polanin, Espelage & Pigott, 2012). The bystander effect is the idea that the larger the group, the less likely an individual is to be helped. The probability that a person will be helped is inversely compared to the number of people present at the time. This phenomenon has played a huge role in the increase in the number of civilians who have not been helped in recent years and is starting to come into greater focus. Knowledge of the role of a bystander is now better known to the public (Fischer et al., 2011). The bystander effect has served as a gateway to many things and situations such as bullying and gang violence. Most people have found themselves in situations where they were either bystanders or victims of the lack of third-party intervention. The typical person falls victim to the bystander effect because people feel the need to conform to a group, self-efficacy, and the belief that responsibility will be transferred to another individual. On Chicago's South Side in 1984, a high school basketball player, Ben Wilson, was a murderer while driving his girlfriend home after school. Many people witnessed this event, but because no one else was proactive in getting help, it took hours before medical help was called, and Ben died while he was was waiting. The need to conform to a group is present in all individuals. Even when someone knows they should help someone else, if they notice that not everyone is doing it, they will follow the example of the majority. No... middle of paper...... to intervene, so they don't get involved at all. The bystander effect has caused a lot of grief over the years. Many refuse to believe that people can be so selfish, afraid, and worried about fitting in, but research shows that a high percentage of individuals fall into the qualifications of a passive bystander, a person who does not does not intervene at all. The spectators are not bad people, not by a long shot. Studies show that people choose not to intervene due to high levels of anxiety and feelings of insecurity (Polanin, Espelage, & Pigott, 2012). In contrast, the effect of bystander intervention began to increase over the years compared to that of traditional research (Fischer et al., 2011). It's not that people don't want to help others, it's that before helping someone, many variables are taken into account, and some of these variables result from the bystander effect.