Bystander effect in a demand-without-threat situation

In a study with 110 undergraduates, 4 experimental situations which imposed nonemergency, nonthreatening demands for action were created to investigate whether the "bystander" effect found in emergency situations was generalizable to nonemergency conditions. Results support the bystander effect, i.e., the probability of a person responding to a demand situation is higher when he is alone than when he is in the presence of 1 or more other persons who do not respond to the demand situation. Sex differences were also noted.