Can you help me? Eh... maybe

Helping a stranger is not a man’s instinctive behaviour. We help someone we don’t know if we know that he or she depends on us. Helpful behaviour in Psychology is called altruistic behaviour. Let us try together to understand why it is not so spontaneous to help others.

Anthony reads the post:

The example used in literature is Kitty Genovese's murder. An assault with many witnesses, but none of them took the initiative to rescue the girl. Psychology explains this behaviour by "diffusion of responsibility". But what is the diffusion of responsibility?

Being responsible means being aware that a behaviour depends on us. But if someone is in danger, why is that of concern to me? What you do, is look around and ask in your mind: "Do you help him, or do I help him?"

Does this seem exaggerated? No, not at all. Researchers have studied this behaviour. In an experiment, the participants were asked to have an interview in which other people were present. During the interview, one of the participants has what it appears to be a seizure, this person is faking it, but the others don't know that. 

What do you expect to happen? The likelihood of helping the person in need depends on how many people are in the room. If I am alone, I am clearly responsible, and I must help the person in need, but if there are other people in the room my responsibility "diffusions", and the probability of getting help becomes lower.
Now suppose you’re on the street. And - unluckily - you feel sick and understand, you need help. What should you do? Start screaming for help? Wrong, you will not increase the likelihood of being rescued. Look around, you see someone, point your finger at him/her and say: "Help me". In this way, you assigned the responsibility to someone. If that someone feels responsible, the probability that they do something to help you (without looking around) will be greater.

Have you ever witnessed someone in need, and instead of going to help, you looked around? Why do you think helping others is not a spontaneous behaviour?

If you want me to describe in my own words a topic of psychology, please request it in the comment section.

Cited sources: the story of the Kitty Genovese's murder can be read on Wikipedia. Latané and Darley are the authors who have dealt with the diffusion of responsibility. The example of a request for help that I have described is taken from Cialdini’s book: The Weapons of Persuasion (p. 129 of the Italian edition).