The bystander effect for example, is when you see someone having a heart attack, or requiring assistance in some way, and someone yells “call 911!” but everyone just records what is going on or just stares instead of doing anything. This effect is caused by people thinking “Oh, someone else will call 911, I don’t have to do it.” They don’t necessarily have to think this directly, but their subconscious will cause them to be less likely to assist in an emergency situation. The more people there are, the less likely anyone will help. If you’d like to see statistics on the relevance of the bystander effect, visit this page.

The bystander effect is dangerous, the person may not receive the medical attention or help they need in time to lessen injury and lasting damages, or worse cause someone to lose their life. If you ever see something happen to someone else that is life threatening or severely injures them, help them! Run to them, and then instead of yelling “Someone call 911!”, point someone out in the crowd and yell “Hey! Guy in the red shirt! Call 911 now!” When you point someone out, the bystander effect is severely reduced. If you point someone out directly, they will feel more accountable for their actions and be more likely to help. When you call out "Someone call 911," you are playing with fate.

If you are driving on the highway and see a car pulled over with caution lights, carefully slow down, stop behind them, poke your head out the window and ask if they need help. There are times when cars get into accidents or break down in the middle of nowhere, and people have no help service. These people wait for hours, and nobody helps them.

There are plenty of experiments on YouTube, like this video of a kid in New York posing as a homeless child in the below freezing weather conditions, with almost nobody stopping to help him. The article I linked previously also has a perfect example of the bystander effect involving a subway incident that happened a few years ago.

Educate yourself on the bystander effect and do not be a part of it! If you get injured and need help point someone out and tell them specifically what you need. If you simply yell "I need help" or "someone call 911," you aren't guaranteed to receive any help. Don't risk your life or the life of another over something so simple and easy to do as call. Change the wording and call someone (or multiple people) out. If someone collapses and you are helping them, there may be many tasks you need help with. Single out people in the crowd and send them off to do only one specific task. For example, a man collapses and you rush over to help. Point someone out and tell them to bring you water. Point someone else out and tell them to call 911. Point a different person out to fetch you the AED. Continue pointing out individual people to help you with tasks, but do not assign more than one task to one person, or else you risk them getting confused and not completing either of the tasks. If you keep it simple, one task per person, your ability to help will greatly increase.

Stay safe out there everyone.