the passivity of bystanders

People often remain passive both in the face of the mistreatment of groups of people, such as discrimination, torture, mass killing, and genocide, and in the face of events in their society that harm or endanger everyone, such as the destruction of the environment or the nuclear arms race. Socially responsible action is both similar to and different from helping and altruism directed at individuals. To the extent it derives from a feeling of responsibility, its focus is the social good, which includes one's own good but extends to one's group, other groups, and possibly all of humanity. Some of our knowledge of bystander passivity comes from researchs on emergency helping and some from analyses of the psychology of perpetrators, bystanders, and heroic helpers in genocides and mass killings.

Type I Bystanders: Passivity in the Face of Mistreatment and Violence

There are two categories of Type I bystanders. Those who witness the mistreatment of members of a group of their own society but remain passive are internal bystanders. They may accept demands by the perpetrators that they participate in the persecution, even gradually joining the group. Their silence and their semiactive role often encourage the perpetrators. For example, in Nazi Germany most Germans participated to a greater or lesser degree in the system the Nazis established. They boycotted stores, owned by Jews, broke off relations with Jewish friends, and so on.