The bystander effect

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That is fine and great help.

I would be afraid of drunks/drug addicts/scams.
Sorry. I'm female, and 50kg wringing wet. If they were obviously hurt, I'd call a security guard or 000.

I've learned from CPR training that if someone is just lying there, to ask if they are ok, then give their ankle a bit of a kick, so if it is a drunk/ drug addict/scammer they can't grab you/rob you/ stab you with a syringe.

I've learned to spot druggies and drunks who are passed out. And I never give money or get too close. But I'm an Aspie, so that means that -- unlike NTs -- I have empathy.

I have intervened in similar situations.

I don't see, in that busy location, how the person playing the victim could represent any danger. And you can always raise your voice: "Are you alright? Do you need help? Shall I call an ambulance." If they don't give a coherent answer, you can give that information to the emergency services operator. If they give an ambiguous or strange response you can ask the basic orientation questions: What is your name? Are you feeling well? Do you know where you are? Do you know what day it is? It doesn't really matter if they are in a bad state because of drugs, injury or illness--they could be in serious trouble.

I understand the many reasons why people don't get involved--people have no space and no privacy in cities, so they learn to ignore others

The totally different response to the guy in the suit was surprising, though. It's not like the first to actors were filthy. I can see why people wouldn't want to lean in and put their hands on a really dirty person, but the first two "victims" looked fine to me... I don't understand the change in reaction to the man in the suit at all. That's a bit disheartening.

Can we differentiate between someone obviously injured and moaning on the ground for help in the middle of a sidewalk, and drunks/high people and the sleeping homeless?

Because I don't know what good good would come out of essentially harassing a person drunk/high in public or obviously homeless and sleeping. They don't want to be bothered, and the police or emergency services won't even respond and would likely cuss you out for wasting police time.

I realize this is context sensitive but I live in a capital city and the difference is obvious.

Though there is always that awkward moment when you see a homeless person sprawled out in an unlikely location and posture, and wonder if they are alive or dead...

Walk on by?

A lot of the homeless people I see in manhattan are mentally ill, which adds another layer of complexity to the problem.

Social status is what motivates many NTs ("Keeping up with the Joneses"). Those with high social status are more important and hence should get more help than those with low social status because they base their confidence in the group/society on their social status. Everybody in the group agrees on how this social status is measured. A business suit indicates you have a high social status. Hence the difference.

If I saw someone who was obviously injured, I'd try to be the first person to help out, because it would provide an easy opportunity for me to get some social credits with them. If it wasn't for that, I'd probably just hope that someone else nearby would help them. I try to avoid participating in most social situations, because I don't want to risk being degraded in some way.

I might just think it was an act or some sort of trick to get me near them. Pretending to need help can put your victim's guard down for some kind of scam or crime. Plus these days with most people having cell phones it's probably safer to call assistance than intervene yourself if it's something really serious.

When I was a small child I was at the mall with my mother and saw a man in a wheelchair. First he dropped his wallet and then he fell out of the chair trying to reach for it. I went to help and it turned out that it was a college student doing some kind of study.

There was this goth girl on the buss in high school who would violently make out with her boyfriend. They would literally thrash about and bump into other people. This went on for a few weeks but one day I got the feeling she was distressed and asked her "do you need help?" and she said yes so I pulled her BF off her and put him in a headlock. Apparently he had been molesting/ raping/ abusing her but everyone just assumed that their interactions were consensual because they were goth and she never asked for help.

Without her asking for help everyone would have blamed the situation on her, I know I did. Before she asked for help I had thought "what the hell is wrong with her/him/them."

I bet most of you Aspies are surprised, being so a lot of you believe how empathetic NTs are and how much Aspies and Autistics lack it. If a person cared that much about a suffering person and could easily put themselves in that person's shoes and would want to help out, then they would blank out what everybody else is doing and go to help that person.

Yes it is quite fascinating how people become indifferent to the suffering of other people because the indifference of other people is contagious or they assume someone else will get help thus shifting the responsibility from themselves. Apparently happens in city areas far more than rural areas because responsibility is apparently spread out more. People act more collectively in little groups in rural areas. Saying this however, one of the most prominent examples of the by-stander effect was the case Kitty Genovese who was apparently chased through the streets of New York I believe or somewhere like that and apparently no-one helped. This is not true however and the story has been largely fabricated by people. People apparently did call for help and since mobile phones did not exist then or were exceptionally expensive since it was the nineteen fifties, no-one could call for help anyway. This example is still taught in psychology textbooks however is now pretty much known to have flaws. The Stanley Milgram tests are interesting as well since they show human beings to be willing to commit acts of sadistic violence when someone in authority is telling them to. Many people think 'God, how could the nazis do such a thing! I would never do that!' however the sad fact is most of the people who were part of such genocide were many people like the rest of us.

True, however I believe that most examples of the by-stander effect occur do not occur because people do not care but because they assume someone else will take responsibility. You see someone injured or being chased with a knife and think 'someone is BOUND to ring the police' or something however everyone else is thinking the same thing and thus collective responsibility is diluted to the point that it becomes apathy and indifference.