Diffusion Of Responsibility

Indeed, it does seem that diffusion of responsibility has quite an effect, especially in crowded cities. Today, I was at a food court and a young lady had a rather bad epileptic fit. She fell to the ground and probably bit her tongue in the process. There was quite a bit of bleeding, and one of the men near her (friend/relative, presumably) shoved a spoon in her mouth while another lady tried to get her settled down without moving her off the floor.

What was interesting was the small concerned crowd that gathered almost immediately, gawking at the scene. A majority of the people in the area noticed what happened, but did not move in to help in some way. What was quite remarkable was that despite all this attention, it took nearly five minutes before someone decided to call for an ambulance. It seems likely that diffusion of responsibility was at play here, since nobody (myself included) felt particularly inclined to make the call...assuming that someone would.

It is scenes like these that make me feel that there are a goodly number of Patricia Tannises in the city, since those of us who did not immediately go to gawk or render assistance seemed perfectly capable of enjoying our meals while someone else was convulsing on the floor. In fact, I did feel a mild irritation at the inconvenience of the timing of the fit, as it was interrupting my magazine reading. I like reading at the meal table. It gives me something to do, and adds a sense of accomplishment to what would otherwise turn out to be "just" a meal.

Of course, I did not eventually decide to knife her or shoot her several times in the back, then figure that her name was Leslie and how she had a troubled childhood from having a guy's name. There may yet be some remaining dreg of my ever fading sanity.