The Bystander Effect and the Avengers

Here's what happened.

I'm doing some homework. Writing about the connection between conformity and the bystander effect. In short, conformity is going along with the rest of the group and the bystander effect is to assume someone else will do something. In short of course. The bystander effect takes cues from the group. When no one else is doing anything about a given situation for some reason people assume someone else must be doing something. Made famous (or perhaps infamous) in 1964 when Kitty Genovese was killed while a good 30 something or more people watched from their apartments. Each assumed someone else was calling 911.
Anyway, I hear a loud crash in the apartment above me followed by some colourful language and screaming. My immediate reaction is something isn't right. But then I justify it by thinking probably someone dropped something and the resulting screams were out of anger or frustration. Understandable. I hear more smashing and screaming. Still I think oh boy, stupid people having a fight. But distinctive thumping and crashing aren't normal for a healthy spat. I use the term healthy VERY lightly since I believe they are never necessary but that's another issue. Oh and I also hear a baby crying now. Also, having primed myself with thinking about the bystander effect and not wanting to fall into such an unfortunately common statistic, I called 911. Well the landlord first. I had never called before. It was exciting. After I hung up I thought okay, back to homework. But it continues to escalate. Words like stop and get away were clear and no longer muffled by the floor seperating us. So I went up there. I took off my glasses in case I had to throw down. Ya know, I'm a pretty big guy. I've had fight training even though it's only been in a dojo and was several years ago now. Now I listened outside the door I assumed it was and yes I could still hear everything and that confirmed it. I banged on the door but it was locked and I hear someone say look what you did now. People heard. And then silence. Well kind of. Baby still crying but nothing else. I found that odd and I can only imagine what the reason was. Did they both want to keep private even though it may or may not have been abusive? Certainly sounded that way but I never saw. Was one constrained from speaking at this point? I don't know. But the police arrived. Very quickly I also. I was inpressed. Just a couple minutes. Then I left. I don't know the whole story. That's the role I played. Did I butt in where I wasn't welcome? I don't know. Was it unnecessary? Can't be certain. But if it was then I'm glad I did.

And the first trailer for the Avengers movie came out this week and I went all geek over it.