 Diffusion of responsibility

Diffusion of responsibility is a social psychological phenomenon wherein individuals in a group feel less personal responsibility to take action or intervene in a situation because they believe that others will or could take responsibility. This can lead to a situation where no one takes action, especially in emergencies, because each person assumes that someone else will step in. The concept is often illustrated through the "bystander effect," where the likelihood of an individual helping a victim decreases as the number of bystanders increases.