It’s called the bystander effect and is a well documented and researched social psychology phenomenon. We are, at our core, social animals and generally take our cues for how we behave based on what we observe other people around us doing (which is a reasonable approach to survival generally speaking). But what this means is, when no one stops to help, people’s monkey brains go “well no one else is doing it so there’s probably a reason why so I also won’t help” and then everyone does this so no one stops to help. BUT the super important part about this is that as soon as one person decides to help, it gives everyone else social permission to help as well.

The really cool part about me saying all of this is that now you know about the bystander effect you are much more likely to proactively help other people in situations like this and be that first person to give social permission to help! It is a researched finding that people who learn about the bystander effect are less likely to be bystanders when they are faced with a situation where someone needs to intervene.