A security camera video of a two-year-old little girl being run over twice on a street in China has exploded across the web in recent days and has drawn a chorus of horrified reactions from people across the world.
According to English language news website Xinhaunet, the CCTV video is of Wang Yue, a Chinese toddler who was seen lying in a pool of blood on a market street having just been hit by a truck, which sped away after slowly running over her with its back wheels.
Shockingly, the video reveals that more than a dozen people walked around the suffering toddler and no one offered to help. Finally, a 56-year-old rag collector came to her rescue and she is reported to be in critical condition following Thursday’s accident.
In most parts of the world there is a Good Samaritan Law that protects those who stop to give aid. China does not have that law so some speculate that fear of being blamed or prosecuted for the girl’s injury made so many turn their eye to the girl’s plight without stopping.
Joachim I. Krueger, a professor of psychology at Brown University who studies self-perception and social perception has looked into how so many passers-by could heartlessly ignore the girl’s sickening condition.
According to Krueger on CNN, we are alarmed when we hear of a person in distress and later, the horror increases when the person being victimized in a vicious and careless way is helpless.
Kreuger, editor of Rationality and Social Responsibility writes, “Our spontaneous reaction is to say: "Had I been there, I would have helped; what is wrong with these people?" If an incident occurs in a foreign country or culture, it is easy -- maybe tempting, as we grapple with something so baffling -- to conclude that the particular culture is to blame, that it is being callous, uncaring or egotistical.”
According to Asian news agency Xinhua, a similar incident happened in central China in 206 when an 88-year-old man collapsed, his face striking the pavement. Yet, no one came to his aid, and he ended up choking to death on the blood from his nose.
