Why you should not blame Chennai?
Why you should not blame Chennai?
An explanation with an experiment.
Disclaimer:
The characters depicted in this article are non-fictitious. Any similarity to actual person is purely intentional.
Today is Madras day! So, what’s more appropriate than to just talk something good about Chennai. Happy madras day to you. If you are reading late, then happy belated madras day to you.
For many of you, Chennai is just a city but for me is an emotion. One of the reasons is that I studied college there in Loyola. Don’t get excited, I just studied engineering and don’t ask me whether it has an engineering college. I am exhausted from answering that question. People should have common sense. If there was no engineering college then how should I have studied there?
One of the many complaints I hear about Chennai is that no one will come to rescue and many Chennai supporters will remind them about flood. I am not going to do that. I am going to justify what they are doing is…. Ok after reading this article you take the judgement. Otherwise people will say I am totally biased. Let me narrate some experiment conducted and from that you can take a call.
Experiment:
Before going to the experiment, do you think you are person who will offer help? Answer this question to yourself.
Now the experiment. The participant Kumaru was led to an individual booth. Kumaru was told that there was no one present other than him and Abbi whom Kumaru can’t see. He was asked to talk to Abbi (Yes, his name has 2 b’s). Actually, Abbi was an experimenter and Kumaru doesn’t know that. The communication was just one way. If one talks other can only hear and can’t talk. I wish I had this feature in real life. When it was Abbi’s turn to talk, he choked and said “I am gonna die. Please help me.” You may expect Kumaru to go for some help. Yeah, Kumaru is a nice fellow. He went for help.
But Kumaru Thambi didn’t go for help, he became Mr. Bad in people’s eyes. (Don’t give silly comment like, If Kumaru Thambi was bad then I am his Dad). He is not really bad. He might have gone to help Abbi but he was told that there were four other participants like him. So, what Thambi was thinking is that someone else will take up the responsibility. What if others thought the same?
Dark: The question is not where. But when
Me: The question is not who you are. But where you are.
It is needless to say Chennai has more population. If you fell down from your bike in Chennai, obviously there are many people who will witness and they will think that someone else will take up the responsibility. Oh! This is called bystander effect. Don’t blame Chennai for common human behaviour. Don’t come to me and say no in our native place someone will come for rescue but instead go to the experimenters.
Contact details:
Bibb Latane,
Columbia University.
And
John Darley,
New York University.
Finally, if someone ask like this, reply them with “Kootama iruntha yepdi sir kekkurathu?”.
Comments
Post a Comment