Individuals in Groups


The article" Individual in Groups," which  adapted from the LosAngeles Times by Carol Tavris, states that there are some experiments show that people who in group stop each other to do things. The people who in groups also tend to take less responsibilities than when they are in the individuals situation, because they believe that somebody else will do it. Actually,  in my opinion, Carol Tavris idea about the "diffusion of responsibility" is  right. People who in groups always expect the others to take more care things than themselves, because this kind of things both happen  in stories or in our real lives all the time.

People take less responsibilities  in groups, because they are expecting somebody else to do their jobs.  The two experiments in the article show individuals always try to do more to prevent bad things happen, remind me a Chinese story, right away.The Three Monks. In the story,  one monk lives alone at the beginning, and he has to fetches water every day for  himself, and he has never have  any problem doing that. Therefore, he has water to use all the time. Later, the second monk move in, then, they fetch water together for themselves, and the seems happy to do that. However, there is  no more water for them after the third  monk came to live with them, and they all died, because they  all  hope the other person to do the things that they have to do when they are alone.

 People also usually do not want to take their responsibilities when they are in the public areas.They  more willing to take care their  individual place instead. If you contrast the public areas to the private ones, it will not difficult to see that the public areas  always messier than the latter ones. There are cigarette ends, paper, coffee cups, and plastic bags all everywhere, on the streets, on the subways stations, and buses all the time. Even though a lot of people complain those bag behaviors, they don't bother to make their best to keep the public areas more in order and nicer, because they are expecting  somebody else to do the jobs and they take it for granted that that is not their responsibilities to keep  the public areas clean. On the other hand, most of us will happy to try  their best to make their own spaces neat and tidy. That's we  human beings attitudes.

I guess that most of us, more or less,  confuse,  why people  love to take their responsibilities during their individual situation. Now, they can find the answers after reading Carol Tavris'  article, that's the "diffusion of responsibility,"  and I hope they are happy to change this kind of behaviors from now on, I believe that will good for  our living environment and, of curse, benefit all of us.