Individuals in Groups In the article “Individuals in Groups” written by Carol Tavris, the author states that people think and act differently when they are in a group. She provides an example of one experiment where students were placed in a room during a staged emergency, and they were more likely to call for help when they were alone. In contrast, students who sat in groups didn’t do anything because they followed the group. The psychologists refer to this phenomenon as “diffusion of responsibility” or “social loafing,” which means people in groups are lazier than people who are alone. I agree that individuals are more likely to be lazy and ineffective in groups than being alone. First of all, one reason why individuals tend to follow the group is because they think someone else has already taken care of the accident or situation. People who are alone when an accident occurs are more likely to depend on themselves. They think that if they don’t help the victim, nobody would help him or her. People who are alone are more likely to be effective because they imagine if they are the victim, they expect people around would help. In contrast, when individuals are in a group, they follow what the group does. Individuals think that someone in the group has already take care the scene; they are being lazy because there are more of them, and they think they don’t have to worry about it. So, individuals are more likely to be lazy when they are in a group. Secondly, individuals think and act differently when they are in a group is because they are being controlled by the group. For instance, if there are four people in a group when the accident occurs, one of them wants to help the victim, but the others might want to ignore the scene. Then the person who wants to help the victim thinks that nobody else in group wants to help. That person is more likely to stay with the group and witness the victim being killed or injured because they want to be gregarious with the group. People in the group are less effective desire to help the victim.
I have seen a similar scene that most people observe some situations or danger on their own or in a group, they tend to be ineffective and quiet. For instance, I have seen a videotape by a Chinese guy on YouTube. It was about a 25 year old woman was drunk and had been raped on the street by a 40 year old man with a gross sexual appetite. Twenty-two pedestrians walked by and didn’t do anything; five pedestrians videotaped the scene. Nobody went to help her; even students standed there watching the woman being raped. Finally, a woman who was by herself called the police and the old man was arrested. It took 40 minutes for someone to decide to help the poor woman. The savior walked a few blocks away from the scene called for help with no cars behind and no passengers. In conclusion, minority of individuals or groups would help victims to get out of danger. However, the majority of people do not want to be involved. For them, they think they might get into danger too. People seem disregard it from being lazy. Individuals think and act differently when they are in a group, they tend to follow the group and be controlled by the group. The more observers there are, the less likely any one person is to call for help.