Reference Information:
Title: Opening Skinner's Box
Author: Lauren Slater
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company (2008)
Summary: In this chapter of Opening Skinner's Box, Slater discuses the bystander effect, where when a sufficiently large group of people witness something that normally would drive an individual to action, and yet they all remain motionless, simply watching the events unfold. She discusses this in the retelling of a trio of brutal murders, in which 38 people simply looked out their windows and watched, instead of calling the police. In an experiment trying to recreate the effect, they used a fake seizure to attempt to drive people into action. They discovered that in groups of 4 or more, people would be far less likely to react.
Discussion: I've read about the bystander effect before, this was pretty interesting chapter to read. I'd hope that in a similar situation, I wouldn't fall victim to this effect, and would be driven into action. I found this chapter a little more enjoyable than the previous few.
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