Diffusion of Responsibility

This is the description I found on Wikipedia: 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. This phenomenon rarely ever occurs in small groups. In tests, groups of three or fewer, everyone in the group took action as opposed to groups of over ten where in almost every test, no one took action. This mindset can be seen in the phrase "No one raindrop thinks it caused the flood". Knowing this, it is always important to respond to emergencies such as a car accident in the light of the mindset, "Well there's so many people driving past this, surely someone has called 911."

I learned this in a Psychology lesson a long time ago and what happened the past few days where I live is a good example of it. One of the electronic gates in our condo complex malfunctioned late last Saturday and would not open. Fortunately there are other gates available for the residents to go in and out. Thinking that one or more of the residents called the property management company to report it so they can send someone to repair the gate, I didn’t do anything but wait patiently. Finally on Thursday afternoon, after the gate still wasn’t working, I called the management company to report it. It turns out that I was the first and only one to call it in. I found it a little funny that among the numerous residents who use the gate, everyone thought that someone else reported the malfunction. A good example of diffusion of responsibility indeed even though it was not an emergency. The repairman is supposed to come today. I’m still waiting…

Update: gate repaired and functioning properly.