Diffusion of responsibility is a social phenomenon which tends to occur in groups of people above a certain critical size when responsibility is not explicitly assigned.
Diffusion of responsibility can manifest itself:
- in a group of peers who, through action or inaction, allow events to occur which they would never allow if alone (action is typically referred to as groupthink; inaction is typically referred to as the bystander effect) or
- in hierarchical organizations as when, for example, underlings claim that they were following orders and supervisors claim that they were just issuing directives and not doing anything per se.
This mindset can be seen in the phrase "No one raindrop thinks it caused the flood".
EXAMPLES
- Kitty Genovese, a New York woman, was stabbed to death near her house. More than 30 of Genovese's neighbors heard her screaming for help for approximately a half an hour, yet no one helped her, each thinking that somebody else eventually would.
- Lazy-f*ck undocumented students who would rather stay the course with their pathetic f*cking lives.
What does it say when our ENEMIES work harder than us, despite the fact that each one of you lame f*cks claim to have worked so0 hard up to this point.
Why stop?!
MAN UP people!@!
P.S. (I don't mean all of you are lazy. The ones who have been busting their asses know who they are.)
