Quote:
Originally Posted by Columbine
From what I've seen in person and read about, by-stander intervention in Japan is pretty low because of this, particularly in scenarios where no one is in immediate danger or anything. It's not that they don't want to help, or that they don't care, or that they particularly need the consensus of the other by-standers to intervene (and western people do this just as much. People tend to look at the victim and then look at everyone else to see what they're doing before they wade in.), it's more that they don't want to embarrass the person who needs help.
Sounds weird, but I think that the social nature of Japanese culture means that one-sided social 'transactions' are pretty rare compared to other more individualistic cultures. It's not that Japanese people are ~less~ altruistic (as some people would have you believe) it's just that they're used to things being two-way, so getting yourself into trouble and causing another person to go out of their way to help you is a) highly embarrassing for adults; that's what kids do and b) is a difficult situation in which you can give back to your helper from. After all, it's probably a stranger you'll never see again.
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I think it depends on where you are. The bigger the metropolis the lower bystander intervention is anywhere in the world. I was in the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995, and I was happily surprised to see moments after the earthquake people were going door to door asking if everyone was OK.
I am not sure what you mean by "one-sided" transactions.