To Help or Not to Help:A Network Modelling Approach to the Bystander Effect

This paper focuses on defining and simulating behavioural outcomes of the bystander effect. These insights were modeled by temporal-causal networks. Typical patterns of bystander behaviour were translated into three requirements and seven simulated scenarios of the bystander effect. All scenarios were simulated to showcase the main bystander effect dynamics and its accordance with the literature. Unknown parameters of the effect were further estimated by a Simulated Annealing algorithm. In the end, the created model shows the potential to simulate the bystander effect in different and new scenarios. The created model adhered to the stated three requirements and shows potential to verify the model predictions independently and for new bystander situations.</p