The Townie's Note

By-Standers in the City

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I’m a local Parisian. I love the city of Paris and have lived here over the last few years. The city has such a vibrant cultural scene, a diverse array of culinary choices from every corner of the globe, and architectural wonders including – of course La Tour Eiffel, Notre Dame, and even Sacre Coeur. There are destinations thousands of artists only dream about! Despite the brilliance of Paris however, there is one thing I just can’t stand…

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For those of you in Paris, how many times has your heart sank to watch a mother pushing a child stroller through the halls of the metro? It happens to me so frequently. Just several weeks ago, right after the Christmas Holidays I saw it there and again, in Montparnasse Station. Unbelievable. A flight of stairs, hundreds of rushing Parisians, and a single mother sighing as she will once again have to lift the stroller up. In fact, with the baby inside, many of the standard “baby strollers” might weigh up to 25 kg !

I approach the woman gently as hundreds of young, middle-aged Parisians are darting up the stairs barely glancing over at this woman. Their minds are caught up in their own affairs, inevitably. Which Parisians aren’t? As I approach her, I kindly smile at the woman. “Tenez, je vous aide” I say in French, confidently, meaning “Hold on, let me help” I grab the stroller with two arms. It’s a heavy stroller, woah, immediately I can feel it. I peer over, and there is a toddler inside, explains the weight. The woman acknowledges me and says “Ah merci beaucoup, merci” Anyway, I’m halfway up the stairs lifting the stroller when I say in French “Gosh, it’s about time they do something to adapt the metro to stollers!” There is a short silence, and she doesn’t reply. I’m nearly starting to sweat as I am, myself, carrying a quite heavy backpack. Well, then okay. Finally, we arrive at the top and she thanks me again, as if I were a saint.

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Have you ever lived this experience?

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Why do I ask? I studied public health in Paris. In school, we had courses on adapting the environment to provide a healthy space for all of its users, including in crowded cities such as Paris! Time and time again, I’ve seen this situation, blind men or women receiving no help to get around on their own, an elderly person J-walking (jumping out into traffic to cross the street and receiving no help), or even young students left on their own to lift heavy suitcases up the stairs. In social psychology, professionals call this the bystander effect. The bystander effect explains that, the greater the number of bystanders when there is a visible victim, the less likely one person is to offer help. It’s no recent theory. To illustrate, in the late 60’s researchers Latane and Rodin organized a scene such that a woman cried out in distress in front of 120 different male graduate students (see citation below). During the scene, the male students were either waiting alone, with a friend, or among strangers when the woman fell and cried out in pain. In their observation and analysis, the researchers found that the proportion of men among strangers who came to help was significantly fewer that that of the proportion of graduate men who came over while with their friend.

Latane and Rodin had observed a simple fact. People fear the judgement of others, particularly if they are among a large group of people. Clearly, people don’t want to appear foolish in front of others at the cost of their reputation in society, but who wouldn’t?

Anyway, the point of this short article is not to put the blame people for thinking too much about themselves, we all have our weaknesses, don’t we? The point is simply the unseen reality of hundreds of thousands of people, be it in Paris, in Boston, or literally anywhere else. One might say, ah but money is the problem, and oh, the cultures are different, and granted, it’s 100% clear that we don’t have enough systems in place to help the mobility of people in the city. But in the meantime, should we really let the bystander effect take its course when we see someone struggling ?

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Kevin S.

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Citations

Latane, B., & Rodin, J. (1969). A lady in distress: Inhibiting effects of friends and strangers on bystander intervention. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 5(2), 189-202