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Subject: Diffusion of Responsibility

Author: Roger

Date: 18:07:40 01/08/00

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The phenomenon is called diffusion of responsibility. The more people are
involved in any effort, the less effort each individual puts forward. Say two
people are involved in a tug of war. Each person might put out 100 pounds of
force. Say ten people are involved. Each person now puts out, say, 50 pounds of
force.

James asked EVERYONE for help, so NO ONE felt like it was his responsibility to
come forward and help.

There was a case in New York City a long time ago...the Kitty Genovese case, I
believe. Kitty was assaulted and stabbed to death, but she and her assailant
fought for quite a while. Hundreds of people listened to her screams, but no one
called police. Everyone assumed that someone already had.

Roger




On January 08, 2000 at 07:52:14, pete wrote:

>On January 08, 2000 at 01:45:25, James Robertson wrote:
>
>>I am going to be unable to operate my program at the ICC tournament, and was
>>hoping someone with an account and a fast or moderately fast computer could help
>>
>>I posted this once before and got no response. A psychologist friend suggested
>>that the lack of responses might be a certain psychological phenomenon, so I'm
>>trying again. :) If you are interested, PLEASE email me.
>>
>>James
>
>I am sorry I can't help you by operating your program but wanted to add that
>probably no ICC account is needed ; mcriley has offered temporary ICC accounts
>for programmers who want to play but are no ICC members yet before so I think
>this shouldn't be a problem.
>
>Offtopic : What is this psychological phenomenon ? I would like to know more
>about it :=)
>
>pete



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