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. // The Unobservable Although the term social is a crucial category in social science and often used in public discourse, its meaning is often vague, suggesting that it is a fuzzy concept. ...

Diffusion of responsibility can manifest itself through the following:

• in a group of peers who act or, through inaction, allow events to occur which they would never allow if alone (see bystander apathy for an example) 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." This article is about the psychological phenomenon. ... An organization or organisation (read more about -ize vs -ise) is a formal group of people with one or more shared goals. ...

For example

• Kitty Genovese, a New York woman, was stabbed to death near her house. Her screaming for help was heard by over 30 of her neighbors yet no one helped her, each thinking that somebody else definitely would.
• In a firing squad, one shooter is traditionally given a blank bullet, allowing all members of the firing squad to believe that they only fired a blank.
• In some electric chairs there may be many switches, one of which is not connected. The executioners may then choose to believe that they were the one who only pulled a non-functional switch.
• In military terms, it may be easier to deal with the death of an enemy when the soldier receives a direct order to do some action. See below for a discussion on "I was only following orders" during the war-crimes trials of Nazi Germany. The Milgram experiment also demonstrates this principle.

Kitty Genovese, picture from the New York Times article Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didnt Call the Police. Catherine Genovese (1935–March 13, 1964), commonly known as Kitty Genovese, was a New York City woman who was stabbed to death near her home in the Kew Gardens section of... Execution by firing squad is a method of capital punishment, especially in times of war. ... The first electric chair, which was used to execute William Kemmler in 1890 The electric chair is currently an optional form of execution in the U.S. states of Alabama, South Carolina, and Virginia, and the sole method of execution in Nebraska (the former three states allow the prisoner to... Nazi Germany, or the Third Reich, commonly refers to Germany in the years 1933–1945, when it was under the firm control of the totalitarian and fascist ideology of the Nazi Party, with the Führer Adolf Hitler as dictator. ... The experimenter (E) persuades the participant (S) to give what the participant believes are painful electric shocks to another participant (A), who is actually an actor. ...

Legal uses

The latter definition was used as a legal defense (unsuccessfully) by many of the Nazis being tried at Nuremberg. It has been used with varying degrees of success in other situations. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Süddeutsche Zeitung announces The Verdict in Nuremberg. ...

See also

• Groupthink
• Milgram experiment
• Design by committee
• Bystander effect