Real World Ethics Part 2 - analysis

Feb 8th 2024

Tokyo Museum of Western Art - The Thinker

**TRIGGER WARNING**

Domestic violence, child abuse, racial bias, gender bias, bad language

“To know and not to do is not yet to know.

Laozi

This post follows on from the last ‘Real World Ethics’ post and analyses the Ethical Dilemma in the Sushi bar

So, the first issue is why didn’t anyone do anything – this is what’s known as the Bystander Effect - the bystander effect refers to the phenomenon that an individual’s likelihood of helping decreases when passive bystanders are present in a critical situation – it was first identified by Darley & Latane in the late 1960s who identified three key factors – 1. Diffusion of responsibility – the more bystanders present the less likely you feel responsible, 2. Evaluation apprehension - fear of being judged by others when acting publicly, 3. Pluralistic ignorance - the tendency to rely on the overt reactions of others when defining an ambiguous situation. A maximum bystander effect occurs when no one interven…