Responsibility felt by any one person falls as the number who could act rises.
Darley and Latané's mechanism, distinct from the bystander effect it explains. In a group of ten, each person feels a tenth of the obligation, and a tenth of an obligation moves nobody.
In practice
- An email to eight people asking for a volunteer produces none; the same email to one produces action.
- A shared kitchen with twelve users is dirtier than one with three, and no individual is behaving worse.
- Further reading
- Wikipedia
- Subject
- Psychology & Behavior
- Essay
- Theories of the mind, from the lab to the bookshop