Content note / trigger warning: this video contains a violent assault, may be frightening.
Two men put in hidden cameras in an elevator to see if people would help a man in a life or death situation. How would you react?
This video is pretty shocking and reveals a lot about human nature, the bystander effect, and our “fight or flight” responses (and don’t even get me started on the guy filming the event — I do not have nice words for him):
What would you do if you walked into a murder in progress? Two guys asked themselves the same question and staged a murder-in-progress inside a New York City elevator. Hidden cameras recorded people’s reactions. What would you do?
It makes me think that, while I like to believe otherwise, I would probably freeze and react the same way.
In large groups of people, this is type of behavior is attributed to the “bystander effect”, where people will often falsely assume that other people will handle the danger, so they don’t get help or intervene.
How do you think you would react if you came across this situation? Have you ever run into danger before or seen someone else in a dangerous situation? Did you freeze, or did you try to get help? How do people prepare themselves for situations like this? How can we be proactive?
Photo credit: YouTube, “Elevator Murder Experiment”
This situation can push people over the line!
someday someone will try to do those stupid “what would you do”
and will be attacked.
if an armed man standing there he may shoot the “killer” and then what will you do!?
I’d like to believe that I would intervene but honestly I can’t vow that I would. This video is pretty shocking and reveals a lot about human nature, the bystander effect, and our “fight or flight” responses (and don’t even get me started on the guy filming the event — I do not have nice words for him): Initially I was angry about that too but at the same time video evidence can make for a tighter case. No I’m not saying sit there and film the guy while he dies but having a picture of the action would make… Read more »
Ok, but what’s with deadmandownmovie.com at the end? That’s a movie coming out in a few days about revenge and murder. Makes me think something is not what it seems with this video, especially as the person that posted it on youtube just popped up yesterday and has no other videos.
It’s an interesting idea to see what people do under the stress, but there are so many flaws with this “experiment” and potential dangers to the “pranksters” that I don’t buy it.
I have never walked into a murder in progress, but I once saw an altercation before me and intervened. I saw two guys in cars, one “cut” the other at a stop, the other honked, then they pulled next to each other and were talking/yelling at each other. At one point, one guy quickly opened his door and slammed it in the other’s car, and both got out of the cars. At that point, automatically I moved between the two to prevent a physical altercation. When I saw that one was evidently aggressive while the other seemed like he just… Read more »
I’m afraid they would have had to replace the “attacker” if they wanted to continue the experiment. The first one would have been inoperable. If he survived he would have a long time recuperating to realize what a bad idea that was.
I would hope that the guy acting as the attacker had very good medical insurance, a helmet, an athletic cup and a will.
I think you can tell what you would do based upon other emergencies in group situations that you’ve been in. And you can teach yourself to resist “groupthink” and make different choices.