The High Bystander Helping Rate for Public Assaults Does Not Generalize to Commercial Robberies: A Video Observational Study.

The largest systematic study of bystander intervention in real-life public assaults revealed that victims of aggression receive help from bystanders in 90.9% of assaults. Using the same measurement instrument and similar kinds of video data, we examine the generalizability of this study in another dangerous violent emergency context involving fewer bystanders and more weapons: commercial robberies. We analyzed 43 CCTV-observed robbery incidents in commercial settings and found that bystanders took action to help the victim in 35% of the events, a frequency substantially lower than in public assaults. While the number of bystanders present was positively associated with bystander helping behavior in public assaults, this was not the case in the context of commercial robberies. Our findings suggest that researchers should be wary of generalizing bystander intervention rates across emergency types. We discuss the theoretical implications of these findings and advocate further research examining the likelihood of bystander helping across naturalistic settings and diverse emergency and violence types.