So, why do people blindly follow authority with out questioning orders even when they know it’s wrong? Why is it that when someone needs help people stand around and kind of watch rather than help that poor soul? Well I hope to answer both of these questions with the use of some stone cold facts! Lets start with authority. One thing that installed in all of us as children is to respect your elders, or when you go to school your parents always tell you to listen and do what your teachers tell you to. You’re told to comply with officers and if not aggressive force may be used. There was an experiment that was called the Stanford Prison experiment and basically what happened was that people were randomly assigned to one of two groups. You were either a prison guard or a prisoner. To save you the details what they found was that these people ended up assuming the roles they were assigned, including the man who was in charge of it all Phillip Zimbardo. These prisoners were humiliated by the guards and they all did as they were told after the rebellion on day two. Even though this was an experiment these prisoners would comply until they had mental breakdowns and Zimbardo ended the experiment. Another experiment was when someone in a lab coat would tell people to give someone in a different room a shock if they had answer a question wrong. The volts would increase with every question answered wrong. The catch was the person receiving the shock was not a real person and no one was given shocks. With encouragement from the man in the lab coat 60 to 65% of all volunteers ended up reaching the highest voltage level they could administer, which would be lethal if anyone had been there.

The bystander effect is when people see some who needs help and doesn’t help them, because they are waiting for someone else to do so. For example someone being bullied and no one sticking up for him, or someone getting stabbed in the street and no one calls the police. In an experiment where one person had to help someone having a seizure they called the police. But, they did the same experiment with three people and no one did anything because they were all waiting for someone else to step up to the plate. This was all under question after a lady was stabbed in the streets of NYC and murdered in front of a building. Over 30 people watched this transpire but no one called the police when it was happening. When someone actually did call the police it was sadly too late and she had died. Or when 4 frat brothers saw one of their friends die. They thought he was ok and they had just put him to bed right when someone was about to call the police. They thought he was ok even though he had died from drinking too much water. People become bystanders because they’re waiting for someone else to do something about it. People also blindly follow authority because it was installed in us as children to follow authority. In my opinion i believe that people need to start asking questions when someone asks them to do something they don’t agree with. People need to start sticking up for each other rather than walk by if someone is being bullied. They could potentially save a life.