The Bystander Effect
Over the weekend, I attended a virtual women’s empowerment conference where we heard from inspirational speakers on personal and business development topics. One of the speakers was talking about an experience growing up where she witnessed bullying in the lunchroom. She described the whole scene of watching other kids pick on a girl who was sitting alone, feeling an urge to step in and help, but having a paralyzing sense of fear for being the only person in the lunchroom to react. How could there be an entire lunchroom filled with people, all knowing that what is happening is wrong, but no one coming forward to help the girl?
