prosocial behavior notes draft

Prosocial behavior is defined that the behavior that creates a positive outcome and can include factors of cooperation, communication and helping. This behavior was studied by scientists after the tragedy in New York of a young woman being stabbed on the street while 30 bystanders stood and watched. Scientists questioned why the bystanders did not try to help the young woman in trouble, to which the bystanders stated that they assumed someone else was calling the police. It was determined that the “diffusion of responsibility” led to these bystanders to fail to help in a large crowd. While this information was interesting to scientists, it was not enough to determine why this woman why stabbed so many times without anyone calling for help. This bystander intervention research gives insight to the factors that affect someone’s ability or probability to help another person in danger. Many experiments were designed to study the diffusion of responsibility and how it is affected by different variables.