The bystander effect

The bystander effect is a social phenomenon where individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when other people are present.

It happens because the presence of others can lead to diffusion of responsibility, where individuals feel less accountable since others are available to help.

We see the bystander effect happening within organisations too.

For example, if a piece of data doesn’t have a single owner, no one will take responsibility to resolve any issues with that data or invest in improving the reliability of that data.

Similarly if an alert is sent to many people then often no one will take responsibility to investigate and resolve that alert. After all, they’re busy with their own stuff - the stuff they explicitly do own.

Ensuring ownership is clear is the key to avoiding the bystander effect.