To Help, or not To Help

The accident happened the first night we arrived at Sapporo. We were on our way to the hotel after dinner. The bus turned left at green light, three quarter passed the pedestrian crossing, when a drunkard man walked into (literally) the bus, and fell - face down, in a cold winter night.

It was a crowded street. Along the main street were pubs, shopping centres, stores, and people were busy crossing the road. But no one (the locals) stopped and helped. They just walked pass the man lying on the road, gave him a second look, and carried on with their lives.

Of course the accident held us up for nearly 2 hours.

Which reminded me of our investigation on altruism.

According to Latane and Darley, in order for people to reach out to help, we must first notice the incident, interpret it as emergency, assume responsibility, and then we try to help. At each fork of the path, the presence of other bystanders may divert a person down a branch toward not helping.

So there we go - in a big city where it's crowded, we are less likely to assume responsibility - "someone surely will help that man"...

It's probably common in big city, or a cosmopolitan. We have grown so far apart even though physically we are getting closer (imagine Singapore and its 6 millions population in the future).

I am just wondering if such accident happened in Singapore, whether we would reach out and help - by carrying the man to the pavement, calling the police, stepping up as a witness....