Which concept explains reduced likelihood to help when others are present?

• A. Social loafing
• B. Bystander effect
• C. Diffusion of responsibility
• D. Social facilitation

Answer: (C)

Diffusion of responsibility is the idea that when others are present, people feel less personal obligation to act. In a situation with many bystanders, each person assumes someone else will intervene, so the sense of individual responsibility is divided among the group. That shared sense of obligation reduces the likelihood that any one person will step forward to help. This mechanism explains why helping behavior tends to decline as the number of witnesses increases. While the broader pattern is known as the bystander effect, diffusion of responsibility is the specific factor driving the reduced intervention. For contrast, social loafing involves reduced effort on a group task, social facilitation concerns how presence affects performance, and the bystander effect refers to the overall tendency for help to be less likely with more bystanders—diffusion of responsibility is the mechanism at work here.