Please understand that I am in no way criticizing China or the Chinese people with this question. It is honestly just a curiosity of mine. Obviously, I love China, or I would not be living here and working here. But when someone on the street is injured or in trouble, no one ever seems to help that person. Instead, people just watch. What is the psychology behind this?
Their is no "good samaritan" law in China,helping someone can cost you a lot of money.
Hence no one wants to learn CPR or help others.
I can understand the financial aspect of it, sure. But what about basic human decency? Don't people want to save someone's life just because they are a fellow human being?
It's a form of entertainment for them. It's like watching a movie. For some there own life is just plain old boring and when they see something in 3D like an accident it is exciting for them.
But really, I want to know the thoughts and feelings of someone who stands on the street, watching someone else die in pain, but not helping.
First i want to say "hey" to everyone.
Personaly speaking this comment "thats like watching movie for them" is discusting and shows no respect to Chinese at all !
So have you ever heard about "distribution of responsibility" phenommen? This is not only Chinese problem this is basic human psihology. If there is some incident the probabilty that some individual observer will think "someone else will help, better I stand out" is reciprocal to the amount of the observers. In China this is specialy visible because of the China population but I can asure you if some incident happen in the country side, much more people will go and help.
Basicly if somebody is attacked or hit by a car, and 99 people just watch him, and only 1 person help, this 99 individuals are "normal" and the helping person is "not normal" looking from human psihology corner.
As i wrote before this is not only China problem, for example Youtube is full of videos injured people dying on the street in the USA also just you live in China so you notice it much more :)
CROwai, good points. Thank you for your reply. I think you are right.
My girlfriend told me that people don't help because of the legal precedents that have been set in China with people that have previously helped others. The Chinese courts have ruled in the past the the helper is liable for the care of the injured person - even though they had nothing to do with the accident. This came about when someone was hit by a person in a car who then drove off. Someone came to help the victim who then claimed later (probably to avoid the hospital bill) that the person who helped them was the same person that hit them. When this went to court the courts found in favour of the victim, not the helper. My girlfriend tells me there were a few high profile cases of this in a short period of time about 5 or 6 years ago, since then noone is willing to help others for fear of becoming a victim themselves. On top of that, group think kicks in really quickly here, if one person stands back, everyone stands back. I suspect if one person got involved quickly to save someone, everyone would get involved. And another problem is hardly anyone knows basic first aid here, so they probably think "I want to do something, but I really have no idea what and I could hurt the person more if I tried... maybe just record on my phone for the police/ambulance".
I have also observed Chinese people appear to be less sympathetic to people or animals in pain. Generally here there is a lesser respect for pain in others (although in the west sometimes we can be too empathetic) or even deaths of people they don't know (unless its hundreds or thousands of people). This is probably a social consequence of a massive population, but who knows?
I don't think Liumingke1234's comment is valid, I really don't see Chinese people being sadistic.
If you really want to help - call the police (from a PAY phone) - then leave. If the cops REALLY want to track you down - there are video cameras EVERYWHERE. They WILL find you. Use the PAY phone, so they don't have your mobile...then leave.
Even in the USA & Japan - medical staff MAY opt to assist, but will rapidly fade into obscurity once the paramedics or ambulance arrives. I once used a thick beach towel to keep a car accident victim warm - spectator ripped it off...(DEATH PENALTY for thieves of choice as opposed to thieves of necessity = no repeat offenders).
