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Cited by 985Psychology of Social InfluenceSocial and Intergroup PsychologyBullying, Victimization, and Aggression

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 96 of the 96 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

The bystander-effect: A meta-analytic review on bystander intervention in dangerous and non-dangerous emergencies.

Fischer, Peter, Krueger, Joachim I., Greitemeyer, Tobias, Vogrincic, Claudia, Kastenmüller, Andreas, Frey, Dieter, Heene, Moritz, Wicher, Magdalena, Kainbacher, Martina·2011·Psychological Bulletin
DOI 10.1037/a0023304
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Abstract

Research on bystander intervention has produced a great number of studies showing that the presence of other people in a critical situation reduces the likelihood that an individual will help. As the last systematic review of bystander research was published in 1981 and was not a quantitative meta-analysis in the modern sense, the present meta-analysis updates the knowledge about the bystander effect and its potential moderators. The present work (a) integrates the bystander literature from the 1960s to 2010, (b) provides statistical tests of potential moderators, and (c) presents new theoretical and empirical perspectives on the novel finding of non-negative bystander effects in certain dangerous emergencies as well as situations where bystanders are a source of physical support for the potentially intervening individual. In a fixed effects model, data from over 7,700 participants and 105 independent effect sizes revealed an overall effect size of g = -0.35. The bystander effect was attenuated when situations were perceived as dangerous (compared with non-dangerous), perpetrators were present (compared with non-present), and the costs of intervention were physical (compared with non-physical). This pattern of findings is consistent with the arousal-cost-reward model, which proposes that dangerous emergencies are recognized faster and more clearly as real emergencies, thereby inducing higher levels of arousal and hence more helping. We also identified situations where bystanders provide welcome physical support for the potentially intervening individual and thus reduce the bystander effect, such as when the bystanders were exclusively male, when they were naive rather than passive confederates or only virtually present persons, and when the bystanders were not strangers.

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Metadata

Authors
Fischer, P., Krueger, J. I., Greitemeyer, T., Vogrincic, C., Kastenmüller, A., Frey, D., Heene, M., Wicher, M., & Kainbacher, M.
Affiliations
  • University of Regensburg (DE)
  • Brown University (US)
  • Universität Innsbruck (AT)
  • Liverpool John Moores University (GB)
  • Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE)
  • University of Graz (AT)
ORCID
Venue
Psychological Bulletin
Publisher
American Psychological Association (APA)
Published
2011
Volume
137
Issue
4
Pages
517-537
ISSN
  • 0033-2909 (ISSN-L)
  • 1939-1455
DOI
10.1037/a0023304
OpenAlex
W2107050526
Semantic Scholar
43e957f87e561c4d2d65715e6fe94e872b34299e
Cited by
983
References
96
Citations by year
2026: 73 · 2025: 80 · 2024: 86 · 2023: 85 · 2022: 82 · 2021: 97 · 2020: 85 · 2019: 83 · 2018: 68 · 2017: 53 · 2016: 60 · 2015: 50 · 2014: 30 · 2013: 34 · 2012: 16
FWCI
88.46
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
  • Psychological Bulletin (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • University of Regensburg Publication Server (University of Regensburg) (acceptedVersion)
Funders
German Science Foundation(DFG) (FI 938/2-1)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Psychology of Social Influence
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Bullying, Victimization, and Aggression
Keywords
bystander effect, bystander intervention, helping behavior, perceived danger, physical support, confederates
MeSH terms
Accidents, Arousal, Emergencies, Fear, Female, Helping Behavior, Humans, Male, Social Control, Informal, Social Identification, Violence, Bias, Confounding Factors, Epidemiologic, Crime Victims

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