Blazes Boylan walked here and there in new tan shoes about the fruitsmelling shop, lifting fruits, young juicy crinkled and plump red tomatoes, sniffing smells
You see a shopper trip over in a busy street. Someone else can help. That’s what you tell your conscience. This is the Bystander Effect in action - the dilution of our sense of responsibility in the presence of other people - and it’s been demonstrated in numerous studies over many years.
But life is complicated and psychologists have begun looking at the circumstances that can nullify or even reverse the effect.
photo { Lee Friedlander, New York City, 1963 }
