{"id":1347,"date":"2009-06-28T20:54:39","date_gmt":"2009-06-29T03:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?p=1347"},"modified":"2013-08-06T03:49:03","modified_gmt":"2013-08-06T08:49:03","slug":"reply-all-and-the-bystander-problem-effect-dilemma-behavior","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/reply-all-and-the-bystander-problem-effect-dilemma-behavior\/1347\/","title":{"rendered":"Reply All\u009d and the Bystander Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"a296a24fa2fc69ef5487857f02f111e8\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Single Post readerboard -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8207522353004717\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1144967431\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>This article is about the\u00a0Bystander Problem Application in Business: The Reply All Dilemma &#8211; how to detect it and overcome it and gain freedom.<\/p>\n<p>In 1964, 38 people in Queens, New York, witnessed the murder of one of their neighbors, a young woman named Kitty Genovese. A serial killer attacked and stabbed Genovese late one night outside her apartment house, and these 38 neighbors later admitted to hearing her screams; at least three said they saw part of the attack take place. Yet no one intervened.<\/p>\n<p>Social Psychologists call this phenomena the Bystander Problem or Bystander Dilemma or Bystander Effect. I believe the same effect happens in &#8220;Reply All&#8221; email communication.<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after the incident, psychologists John Darley and Bibb Latan\u00c3\u00a9 sought to understand this phenomena: How can a handful of people aware of a murder fail to do nothing &#8212; how can rational people choose to not help another human being?\u00a0 In answering this thesis, they arrived at one of the most replicable social experiments even to this day.<\/p>\n<h2>Cubicle-Seizure Study<\/h2>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright\" style=\"margin: 3px;\" title=\"bystander problem and application in business\" alt=\"bystander problem, bystander dilemma, bystander effect, reply all\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/gallery\/blog-pictures\/shmula-bystander-problem.jpg\" width=\"420\" height=\"133\" align=\"right\" hspace=\"3\" vspace=\"3\" \/>College students sat in a cubicle and were instructed to talk with fellow students through an intercom. They were told that they would be speaking with one, two, or six other students, and only one person could use the intercom at a time.\u00a0 There was actually only one other person in the study \u201d a confederate (someone working with the researchers).\u00a0 Early in the study, the confederate mentioned that he sometimes suffered from seizures. The next time he spoke, he became increasingly loud and incoherent; he pretended to choke and gasp. Before falling silent, he\u00a0 stammered:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>If someone could help me out it would it would er er s-s-sure be sure be good\u00a6 because er there er er a cause I er I uh I&#8217;ve got a a one of the er sei-er-er things coming on and and and I could really er use some help \u00a6 I&#8217;m gonna die er er I&#8217;m gonna die er help er er seizure er \u00a6.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The results of the experiment:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Of the 2 person room, 85% left their cubicles to help.<\/li>\n<li>Of the 3 person room, 62% left their cubicles to help.<\/li>\n<li>Of the 6 person room, 31% left their cubicles to help.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Diffusion and Confusion of Responsibility<\/h2>\n<p>Notice that the more humans there were, the likelihood of receiving help decreases &#8212; there appears to be an inverse relationship between the likelihood of receiving help and the presence of other humans.\u00a0 John Darley and Bibb Latan\u00c3\u00a9 believed that the root cause of this behavior is attributed to a Diffusion and Confusion of Responsibility.<\/p>\n<h2>Smoke Room Study<\/h2>\n<p>Another experiment:<\/p>\n<p>They asked participants to fill out questionnaires in a laboratory room.\u00a0 After the participants had gotten to work, smoke filtered into the room \u201d a clear signal of danger.\u00a0 How would the participants respond if they were alone versus if they were accompanied by other humans?<\/p>\n<p>The results:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When alone, 75% percent left the room and reported the smoke.<\/li>\n<li>With 3 people in the room, 38% percent left to report the smoke.<\/li>\n<li>With two confederates (working with psychologists) instructed not to show any concern, 10% reported the smoke.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In two seperate and distinct studies shown above, the results were similar.\u00a0 John Darley and Bibb Latan\u00c3\u00a9 conducted many more similar studies and other social psychologists have done a number of novel studies since, and the results are starkly similar and behavior is depressingly predictive: When others are involved, most of us are Bystanders.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Most of us are Bystanders<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>&#8220;Reply All&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p>In a business setting, the most egregious situation that invites Bystander behavior is the &#8220;Reply All&#8221; email.\u00a0 When others are included in the &#8220;To&#8221; field, I submit most of us either glance the email or delete it wholesale.<\/p>\n<p>Why?<\/p>\n<p>John Darley and Bibb Latan\u00c3\u00a9 would most likely attribute that response to a diffusion of responsibility &#8212; when many people are included in the email, we&#8217;re either confused of the request or believe that the request will be satisfied by one of the people for which that email was addressed &#8212; we believe that at least 1 of the 15 people will respond.<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, this assumption is often wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Indeed, when we engage in this type of email communication, we are creating an environment in which we invite others to be Bystanders.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>We sometimes create an environment in which we invite others to be Bystanders &#8211; we are sometimes the root cause for others Bystanding<\/strong><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Anti-Bystander Behavior<\/h2>\n<p>Fortunately in the email communication space, the countermeasure to Bystander behavior is simple:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Address only the relevant people in an email &#8211; and not too many people<br \/>\n<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Address, <\/strong><strong>by name, the person to whom you are requesting advice, help, or approval<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Be clear, concise, and make your request explicit &#8212; do not leave the recipient guessing<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>In this setting, the countermeasure is simple, intuitive, effective &#8212; but it&#8217;s not simplistic.<\/p>\n<h2>Conclusion<\/h2>\n<p>Let us not create business environments that encourage bystander behavior &#8212; let us act for good, let us do good, and allow others to do the same.<\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This article is about the\u00a0Bystander Problem Application in Business: The Reply All Dilemma &#8211; how to detect it and overcome it and gain freedom. In 1964, 38 people in Queens, New York, witnessed the murder of one of their neighbors, a young woman named Kitty Genovese. A serial killer attacked and stabbed Genovese late one [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12327,"featured_media":9748,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[131],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bystander Problem Application in Business: The Reply All Dilemma<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Bystander Problem Application in Business: The Reply All Dilemma - how to detect it and overcome it and gain freedom\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bystander Problem Application in Business: The Reply All Dilemma\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Bystander Problem Application in Business: The Reply All Dilemma - 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