 In 1964, a woman named Kitty Genoves was raped and stabbed to death in the middle of an open apartment complex in Queens, New York. It is said by New York Times that about 37 bystanders who witnessed the murder did not call for the police, nor did they help her in any way. Another similar incident happened when a 2 year old named Wang Yu was wandering around an open market when she was run over by a truck. The truck did stop, but only for a moment running her over with the front and back tires. 19 people walked past her body, some stopping to stare, but none to help. It was only an hour later that a bystander helped Wang Yu, but unfortunately it was too late. She died in the hospital shortly after. Why is it that no one helped Kitty or Wang when they were in clear need of aid? Well, a plausible explanation could be because of the bystander effect, or bystander apathy. It's when individuals are less likely to take actions when others are present due to the diffusion of responsibility in social influences. In other words, the greater amount of bystanders, the less likely it is for an individual to take action. People in the group assume that someone else will help and that their individual action is not needed, but if everybody in the group all had this apathetic manner incidents like Kitty Genoves, murder, and Wang Yu's hit and run will happen. How could this behavior be explained? Well, according to Richard Dawkins, a professor at Oxford University, what differentiates humans from every other species in the animal kingdom is the development of the prefrontal cortex, or PFC. The medial and dorsmedial parts of the PFC control controls cognitive functioning and rational thought. The argument is that the empathy and the ability to mentalize can motivate non-selfish behavior. Humans are special because we can choose to account to our fellow humans. However, evolutionary biology says that humans throughout history have only acted out pro-social behaviors to benefit themselves, or else nobody would have survived. Which puts the saying, survival of the fittest on the play. An infamous example of apathy is the Holocaust, in which the world closed its eyes during this catastrophe. People could have spoken out to help individuals, but were afraid of speaking if they could have suffered the same fate as the people they were trying to help. So biologically and socially, humans are just inclined to be apathetic and ignore things in which they don't benefit from, or which they could be harmed by. Since we're the only species to have PFC, I don't want to get involved, it's often said whenever an undesirable event should occur. Bystanders will report not wanting to be involved because they fear of negative consequences for themselves, and also because they assume someone else could offer help, not just me. But if people were more aware, events like Wang Yu and Kitty where people didn't respond could have been avoided. So just remember, even if you're just helping a sick family member or friend, maybe even helping someone carry something heavy, don't nudge them off because you think someone else could help them. lend a hand, it could mean the world to somebody. Thank you for watching and have a wonderful day.