Why is our mind and body paralyzed when we are in a group? Experts called it "diffusion of responsibility," but I call it common sense. In "Individuals in Groups," by Carol Tavris, she explains when we are in a group we act or react differently in an emergency situation than when we are alone. Tavris mentions two experiments. The first experiment show us how people react in emergency cases in a group or by themselves; the results were that people who were by themselves react immediately than the others who wait for 6 minutes. In the second experiment, the experts certain one event of a female shouting because she was hurt. They found out that just 70 percent of individuals did something to help her. Besides, than the others who were in a group helped by 40 percent waiting for others to help. When we are in a group we put our responsibilities into others, nevertheless when we are by ourselves we stop moving. .
Waiting for others to do something leads us to have hope that everything is going to be okay. According to the article, "diffusion of responsibilities," occurs when we are in a group of people and our brain focus that someone else is going to do something. This happen because think that somebody else is taking care of it. The consequences of diffusion of responsibilities is that we maintain our though that anyone is going to act, but at the end it can be that neither help at all. Furthermore, why does this happen? Why do we put our responsibilities into others? We worry, we wonder and we get nervous; but not that much to take responsibilities and run for our own life. We panic and start to ask the WH questions: What to do? Where should I go? And so on. I found this passage very interesting and related to an event that happen to me. A few months ago in a super market where I work, there was a "bomb-call." .
It was one of those busy days at the beginning of the month.