Step 3. Should I intervene

In this stage you ask yourself, Is it my responsibility to intervene The answer would be obvious if you were the only witness to a situation you perceive as an emergency. However, you might not answer yes to tiris question when you know that other people are also observing the emergency or the safety hazard. In this case, you have reason to believe someone else will intervene, perhaps a person more capable than you. This perception relieves you of personal responsibility, but what happens when everyone believes the other guy will take care of it This is likely what happened in the Kitty Genovese and Deletha Word incidents and many other tragedies just like these. 

A breakdown at this stage of the decision model does not mean the observers do not care about the welfare of the victim. Actually, it is probably incorrect to call lack of intervention bystander apathy (Schroeder et al., 1995). The bystanders might care very much about the victim but defer responsibility to others because they believe other observers are 

In addition to having a can do belief, people need to believe it is their personal responsibility to intervene. In many work situabons, it is easy to assume that safety is someone else s responsibility—the safety director or a team safety captain. After all, these individuals have safety in their job titles, and they meet regularly to discuss safety issues. They get to go off sife now and then to attend a safety conference—where they learn the techniques that make them the most capable to intervene. Therefore, it is their responsibility. 

How often did the individual sunbather intervene Surprisingly, 94 percent of the sunbathers assigned the watchdog responsibility intervened, often with dramatic and physical displays of aggressive protection. In contrast, only 20 percent of the bystanders in the control condition reacted in an attempt to retrieve the radio. Perhaps, your common sense predicted the correct answer this time, and that is why you have asked strangers in public places to watch your possessions for a short period of time. 

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