the rant of a volunteer firefighter, witness to discomfort in the Paris metro

Have you ever witnessed discomfort or aggression in the street or in the subway and no one dared to intervene? This is called “dilution of responsibility”: the more witnesses to an event, the less likely it is that someone will intervene to help the person in distress. It is this “witness effect” or “spectator effect” that Maxime Leclerc witnessed on Monday, February 19, and reported on X, in a message viewed nearly two million times by users of the social network .

“I got off line 4 at the Montparnasse stop and on the platform, I saw a young woman, around twenty years old, unconscious on the ground. And instead of helping her, people there ‘avoided or stepped over it, without stopping’he tells franceinfo. “Only two or three people were around her, without daring to intervene: there were 50 or 60 of us on the platform, and people were saying to each other: ‘Someone is going to intervene in my place’. Nobody was going to see if she was breathing or if she needed care.” Maxime, a journalist and volunteer firefighter, was able to provide first aid.

“The reflex is to go and see if the person is breathing or conscious: if they are breathing, they must be put on their side while waiting for help, but if they are not breathing and the heart is not beating, it You absolutely have to give him a cardiac massage.”

Maxime Leclerc, witness

at franceinfo

In this case, the young woman was unconscious: “We simply had to talk to her, ask her to squeeze her hands and reassure her when she regained consciousness, a few minutes later, before handing her over to the firefighters”adds Maxime.

A situation more common than it seems

He admits that in certain circumstances it is not easy to help: “If the person is injured and there is blood or it’s a road accident, it can be scary if you’re not used to it. But there, on the platform, it was just a young unconscious woman, there was no blood, she was not having an epileptic seizure: she was just lying down, she was breathing… So I find it hard to understand why no one stopped to check if she “I’m fine or call for help.”

After his tweet, Maxime says he received hundreds of testimonials from people who had experienced the same situation: “Lots of people who told me about falling in the metro or in the street, without anyone coming to their aid, or who were the only ones to intervene to defend a person who was being attackedhe lists. We all say to ourselves that we would have intervened in the same situation, but these examples clearly show that it happens every day.”

The Murder of Kitty Genovese

This situation is in fact more common than it seems: in 2014, for example, a young woman was violently attacked in the Lille metro without anyone intervening, as reported then The voice of the North. An investigation into failure to assist a person in danger was opened by the Lille public prosecutor’s office, without result.

The concept of the “bystander effect” was observed by two American researchers, Bibb Latané and John Darley, after the murder of Kitty Genovese in 1964. This young 28-year-old New Yorker had been attacked, raped and stabbed in on the street in Queens, around 3 a.m., as she was coming home from work. Several neighbors had witnessed the crime, without ever intervening or calling for help. “The responsibility to help a person in distress is divided by the number of witnesses present: if we are the only witness to an event, we will feel more responsible compared to a situation where many people are present, and it can start from just three witnesses, no need for a large crowdexplains Marianne Habib, doctor in psychology and lecturer at Paris 8 University. People feel even less responsible when a competent person intervenes, because in the dilution of responsibility is the notion of feeling competent to help.”

“In a situation where many witnesses are present, we do not feel competent and we see someone intervene, we consider that others can help in our place and therefore that our responsibility is not committed.”

Marianne Habib, doctor in psychology at Paris 8 University

at franceinfo

But how can we break this dilution of responsibility? “We can appeal to the individuals around us, but individually and not collectively. We must not shout ‘help’ but point to a particular person so that they feel personally involved and therefore responsible”, explains Marianne Habib. The specialist specifies: “The witnesses disinvest emotionally from the situation, so I’m not sure they can feel remorse or regret, at least not all of them. If we feel regret the first time we are confronted with this kind situation and we did not intervene, we will want to avoid feeling this feeling the next time and there is a greater chance that we will intervene.

Another way to deal with this phenomenon: talking. “Being aware of this cognitive bias can tend to counter it, because we realize that we are not intervening when we could”, adds Marianne Habib. According to the studies carried out, it seems that the gender of the victim has no impact on this dilution of responsibility.

Train in first aid procedures

To combat this feeling of incompetence felt by witnesses, who do not prefer to intervene, the solution is perhaps to train in first aid, suggests Maxime Leclerc. “Training is not compulsory at the moment: in some schools, we offer it to students once, just over a few hours, but that is not enoughhe pleads. It should be made compulsory, in businesses, in schools, in town halls, and above all free!”

Because we can all be faced with a situation of distress: “In the metro or in the street of course, but also with family: it could be a child who is choking, a person who has a heart attack and who needs to be given a chest massage immediately”, he elaborates. Before concluding : “And above all, we should do regular reminders: for example, a major training session lasting several hours the first year, then a one-hour reminder each year to remember the right actions, because it’s not rocket science and, above all, , it can save lives.“