1. Chris Cocking, John Drury, & Steve Reicher
Bystander Intervention during the 7/7 London bombings: an account of survivor's experiences
Chris Cocking, John Drury, & Steve Reicher

2. Outline Context of Bystander Effect Social Identity approaches
July 7th 2005 and bystander intervention
Wider implications/ future developments?

3. Individual good- group bad?
Crowds initially seen as influencing over-reaction and/or irrational behaviour (e.g. Le Bon, 1895)
But Latané & Darley (1968) suggest that crowds can also encourage inhibition and inaction
Shift from view of crowd as active threat to passive threat (Manning et al, in Press)
So group action still seen as worse than individual behaviour
Assume that BPS audience will be aware of critiques of irrationalist approach so don’t go into too much detail here

4. Background to Bystander Effect
Diffusion of responsibility can happen in emergencies with people delaying action with fatal results e.g. experimental and field studies
Sime (1995) Time to escape= t¹ (time to start to move)+ t² (time to pass through exits)
Latané & Darley (1968) suggest BE more likely, the bigger the crowd
Garcia et al (2002) Implicit BE studies-deindividuation within crowd

5. Development of Bystander Effect
More to BE than physical size of crowd
Role of emotional connection with victims
Helping/altruism more likely if empathy with victim (e.g Batson 1991)
People more likely to help others they identify with, (e.g. Cialdini et al 1997; Dovidio et al 1997)
Role of SCT- ‘it is not simply the presence or absence of others that affects intervention, but who those others are perceived to be’ (Levine & Thompson 2004)

6. Context of research
ESRC funded project investigating crowd behaviour in emergencies
Applying SIT/SCT models of crowd behaviour
Exhibiting our VR programme at Royal Society on 7/7
Decided to gather data from survivors

7. 7/7 Data collected 90 survivors 56 eye-witnesses
archive, questionnaire, , and interview data (12 interviewed in person-6 male, 6 female)

8. 7/7: chronology of events
Bombs explode- brief silence in the darkness
Screams of fear and distress- passengers try to find out what’s going on
Smoke & soot clear- attempts to help/ comfort others, & escape- some delay because of fear that tracks are live
Some passengers wait up to 45 mins for rescue, and walk in orderly fashion along tracks when directed
This isn’t intended to be definitive, more a rough picture derived from reports and eye-witness accounts

9. Typical rush-hour on tube
Normal rush-hour behaviour, diffusion of responsibility/bystander effect could be expected because;
Atomised commuters on way to work
Minimal common identity
Individual injuries/casualties unlikely to threaten group as a whole

10. Behaviour on 7/7 Helping & co-operation rather than selfish behaviour
Individual selfish acts rare and don’t spread
No evidence of mass panic
Only minor evidence for BE, despite minimal existing emotional/affiliative ties amongst participants

11. Why no bystander effect on 7/7?
Clear, shared threat to group survival
Common identity emerges in response to this shared threat
This emergent unity encourages helping and intervention rather than apathy
Being in psychological crowd appears to make helping more, not less likely

12. Bystander intervention on 7/7
Paul Dadge v good example of passer-by intervening to help, and at one point he was directing cops!

13. Examples of co-operation
LB7: these guys helped me up on the platform and then this woman came and asked if I was alright and then held my hand as we walked up the platform together. And um got the lift up to the tube station and sat down for ages and ages and then this really nice woman came and sat with me and put her coat round me kind of looked after me
Female, early 20s, King’s Cross (in carriage bombed)

14. Common identity
CC: Can you remember when this strong sense of unity first emerged?
LB7: I guess probably straight away and then it probably grew a bit but as soon as it happened and people were screaming there was another guy saying calm down and people were talking to each other straight away and obviously something huge had happened and we just kind of instantly felt quite together really.

15. Physical-psychological crowd
LB1: on a normal day on the tube you’re fighting for your own seat, fighting for a decent spot to hold onto, and you don’t you don’t let people through and fight to get on and off the train at first. I think the whole atmosphere changed completely, it was refreshing to see that the human beings that we are, were able to change their behaviour to the situation in hand and normal behaviour on the train at that time of the morning is fight, once you get your seat you put your head in the Metro newspaper and that’s it until you get off but people actually interacted with each other and helped each other and were being considerate
Male, late 20s. Edgware Rd (witnessed blast)
Good ex of how u may get BE on a normal day, but why 7/7 was different

16. Some minor diffusion of responsibility
LB1: there was one guy that was on the train very shortly after the blast happened I don’t know how he got a signal cos we were still in the tunnel but he rang up work to cancel his meetings, and this lady stood next to him said don’t you think you should dial 999 to get the emergency services round and he said somebody else would have done that so there’s no point me doing that’s about the only selfish act I think, I don’t know if it was truly selfish as he was just standing there with nothing else to do so he thought he would phone his office
this guy assumes others will act, but debatable whether this is truly selfish

17. Lasting effects?
LB12: I’ve noticed that more maybe since, just the other day somebody passed out half way on and off the tube and I pulled the emergency cord which I did that day, and I was thinking oh I am making a habit of this now. You know and there was about 4 or 5 people and we managed to get her back on the platform, one of the guys was actually a doctor who had a look at her and she had just passed out [] I mean contrary to what everyone says about we all ignore each other. We do we you know it’s early in the morning or late at night you’re tired you’re knackered you just want to sit there and read your paper or whatever but if something happens generally I would say that most people on the tube would help
Female 50s Aldgate (on train bombed)
Interviewed nearly a year after 7/7, so some evidence for a lasting effect here.

18. Enduring common identity
Common identity clearly very powerful in short-term, and can overcome BE, but does it endure?
Unclear, but some evidence that it does and may also provide mutual support or shield from stress/ trauma (e.g. KCU)
However possibility of maladaptive nature of such groups
Area we want to explore in more detail

19. Mutual support groups post 7/7
Not sure how relevant this is, so cut if pushed for space

20. Summary Less evidence for bystander effect in mass emergencies
Intervention does not necessarily decrease as group size increases
Shared fate can create psychological unity which encourages intervention/ co-operation
Is such unity enduring and/ or helpful in other areas?

21. References Batson (1991) The Altruism Question
Cialdini et al (1997) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Dovidio et al (1997) Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
Garcia et al (2002) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Le Bon (1895) The Crowd
Latané & Darley (1968) Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Levine & Thompson (2004) Journal of Social Psychology
Manning et al (in Press) American Psychologist
Sime (1995) Safety Science