Tags

bystander effect, China, Chinese law, Chinese toddler hit and run, Kitty Genovese, public indifference, Yue Yue

On October 13th, 2011, a marketplace surveillance camera in Foshan, China captured horrific footage in which a 2-year girl was not only the victim of two successive vehicular hit and runs, but also complete disregard from witnesses and passersby. More than a dozen people walked, rode, and drove around the little girl lying in a pool of her own blood in the street like she was an inanimate object in their way. It took 7 minutes for someone to finally stop and help. The victim, Yue Yue, died a week later.

When journalists asked various Chinese citizens why they believed no one intervened, many of them spoke about fear of getting accused of hurting the girl themselves and/or being extorted. A recent quote in the Guardian of a Chinese internet user stated blatantly that, while the footage was indeed horrifying, he would have been “numb” to the lifeless little girl. He then posed these questions:

Would you be willing to throw your entire family’s savings into the endless whirlpool of accident compensation? Aren’t you afraid of being put into jail as the perpetrator? Have you ever considered that your whole family could lose happiness only because you wanted to be a great soul?

Why have false accusations become the norm in parts of China and what is going on in the legal system to perpetuate it? A 2005 NY Times article entitled “Deep Flaws, and Little Justice, in China’s Court System,” stated that,

Justice in China is swift but not sure. Criminal investigations nearly always end in guilty pleas. Prosecutors almost never lose cases brought to trial. But recent disclosures of wrongful convictions…have exposed deep flaws in a judicial system that often answers more to political leaders than the law.

The general consensus within the judicial system seems to be that if you go out of your way to help a person you don’t know, it is likely that you are responsible for the accident and should therefore pay for compensatory damages. Ironically, the woman who finally removed Yue Yue from the street and searched for her family was an impoverished rubbish collector. Despite the fact that Chinese law forbids torture, and states that judges must weigh evidence fairly and thoroughly, many lawyers and scholars claim that forced confessions are all too typical. It seems as though the goal of “social stability” has trumped fairness and truth in China’s judicial system.

I think this reality may shed some light why all those bystanders ignored Yue Yue. People neither trust their fellow citizens nor the legal system, so they have forced themselves to be unresponsive to the suffering of others. There is also no equivalent of the Good Samaritan law in China, which further deters people from aiding others in immediate need.

Incidentally, Yue Yue’s mother told the China Daily she doesn’t judge those who didn’t attempt to aid her daughter and kindly stated, “I bear no grudge and refuse to be disappointed by society.” I don’t think I could be so forgiving…

“The bystander effect” is a term that social psychologists coined in response to the Kitty Genovese murder to help explain situations where witnesses don’t respond to strangers’ emergencies. The circumstances surrounding that murder sparked interest in and research studies on the phenomenon of witness inaction.

In 1964, Kitty Genovese was stabbed to death near her apartment in Queens, NY. It is said there were 38 witnesses, none of whom called the police. Although there are myriad reasons, researchers have focused on two main reasons why many people don’t respond in these types of situations: 1, people often look to other people to decide whether or not to get involved, so if no one goes to help, they figure that they need not intervene and, 2, people assume that someone else will help the person in need, so they feel like responding is pointless.

It seems as though bystander unresponsiveness happens more often than any of us would want to admit. This phenomenon isn’t limited to China and it can happen for numerous reasons. I think understanding why it occurs can help us overcome it, and I sincerely hope that China views this as an opportunity to do so.