Your friend, Aditi, has read a newspaper story about a person on a bus who collapsed but did not receive help from other bus passengers. The story did not contain any information about the characteristics of the victim. Aditi says that she cannot understand why the other passengers did not help the person who had collapsed. Suggest to Aditi why the other passengers did not help, using your knowledge of the study by Piliavin et al. (subway Samaritans).

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (Feb/Mar 2025). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [1] Sometimes people can diffuse their responsibility and expect others to help.
2. [1] This is more likely to happen (theoretically) if there were lots of people on the bus.
3. [1] The victim may have been drunk so people would have been less inclined to help.
4. [1] If the victim was drunk, the passengers might think the victim did not deserve help/could be aggressive.
5. [1] One reason might have been the race of the victim, e.g., white/black.
6. [1] One reason might be the sex of the helpers / sex of people on the bus.
7. [1] If the victim was male and the majority on the bus were female passengers, then the probability of help could be less.
8. [1] Female passengers might have expected male passengers to help more as 'it is a man's job'.
9. There are other creditworthy suggestions.