4. 朗读-旁观者效应是人类独有的吗？

4. Infamous 'Bystander Effect' Isn't Unique toHumans

ScienceAlert

When by itself, a ratimmediately leaps to the aid of another in need. But when there areother rats around, their behaviour could depend on what the bystander rats do.This is the finding of a new 'bystander effect' study, and it might soundfamiliar to you.

"We are constantly lookingat others to see their reactions. And this is not a human thing. This is a mammalianthing," said neurobiologistPeggy Mason. Back in 1969, anow-questioned study found the more human bystanders witness an emergency, theless likely a person is to help someone in need. However, since the 60s, newresearch has shown this effect is not always true; even the tragic murder storythat inspiredthe original bystander effect studies was later proven inaccurate.

"The more people around,the greater number of people who have the potential or the willingness to dosomething," psychologist Richard Philpot told New Scientist in 2019. Otherresearch has indicated that even when bystanders do find themselves"frozen" and unable to offer help, they are still actually concernedfor the victim. The reason for their lack of action is not due to apathy, butother established psychological processes like fear, of seeming foolish, orfaulty assumptions.

Mason and her colleagues havenow replicated the original 1969 human bystander study using rats, in order tosee if there's any discernible biological component to the behaviour. Theyplaced a rat in a cage with another who was trapped. In some cases, there wasjust one free rat, the main subject of the study; in others it was accompaniedby 'bystander' rats who had been drugged with anti-anxiety drugs previouslyshown to stop them from being helpful. When the bystanders were drugged, thefree rat was less likely to help the trapped rat, than when the free rat had nobystander rats around.

Havlik and colleagues suggestthe bystander effect may tell us more about social conformity in general ratherthan just in this particular scenario. They found that rats were moreinfluenced by other rats that were familiar to them (the same strain) thanthose unfamiliar - another well-known behaviour in humans. But when thebystander rats weren't drugged, the entire group of animals were even morelikely to try to free their confined friend than solo rats - contradicting thebystander effect just as the more recent human studies have done.

"This is a phenomenonthat's not exclusive to humans," said medical doctor Maura Jacobi who wasa student at University of Chicago at the time. Our natural inclination to helpothers in need runs very deep within our mammalian heritage, but so does ourneed to conform.