As an employee of Cayuga’s Watchers, I am no stranger to the idea of Bystander Intervention. Oddly enough, the night prior to the Intervene seminar I attended a Bystander Intervention workshop run by Cornell’s Consent Ed. Many of the things we talked about in the Intervene workshop were similar to what we discussed at the other workshop. I find it interesting how intervening can vary from a simple question of “Are you okay?” to a complex situation where we are cautious and afraid to step in. The key point I took away from this workshop that differed from previous ones that I’ve attend was that you don’t have to intervene alone. Sometimes it makes it a lot easier and more comfortable for the bystander if they step in with a group of friends. Most of my previous training focused on how I could help on my own. I thought it was really cool how Intervene made a point to say that you don’t have to do it on your own. Hopefully more people take these types of workshops in the future and can prevent the disrespectful and heinous acts that occur we are blind to.
Rose Scholars Spring 2018
Endless possibilities
I’m really glad this workshop was offered! We learned about the bystander effect in my psych class. Basically, people are less likely to help someone when they’re in a crowd than when they’re alone because they think that someone else will help. Workshops like this one make it more likely that people will help, even in a crowd.
You make a really great point about the potential power of remembering that a way to overcome one’s fear about whether to intervene is to get support from friends. Thinking back on times when I have been a bystander, I remember just deliberating inside my own head about what I should do or whether I should do anything. Voicing this concern to friends may help people get over the self-doubt about whether intervening is crossing too far across some sort of social boundary that seems to often prevent people from stepping in. Also, I wonder if once people voiced their concerns, they would feel compelled to act because now others knew that they knew something problematic was occurring.