Avoiding the bystander effect

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The bystander effect occurs when there is a group of people witnessing an emergency situation, and each person believes someone else will intervene. The chance of someone intervening goes down the more people that are around. To cut down on the bystander effect at school, I’ve started to use direct language in task management and enforce assignments. Instead of “We should”, “Our team needs to” I ask for volunteers and/or assign tasks to individuals. This avoids a bystander effect and helps me and my teammates to focus on the given tasks.

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