Giving mental disadvantages as results of behaviour?

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by jason taylor

Sometimes that can be caused by the assumption that someone else is already helping or that one cannot help. I remember seeing a homeless drunk passed out on the library lawn and knocking on the door to tell the staff then departing. I simply assumed that once the information was given to someone with a telephone my help was counterproductive and left.

It can also come down to "I'm not sure what to do, I might make things worse, I might even get hurt."

You're generally counciled to yell "Fire" instead of "Help" because people know what to do if there's a fire, and fire spreads, which means if you don't do anything about it, it might come and get you anyways. So the uncertainty is removed, and the risk element is, paradoxically, removed because you might get hurt responding to a fire, but you might get hurt if you leave it be too, which comes out as a wash in many peoples minds.