When do bystanders intervene in barroom brawls?
The hero in martial arts movies usually steps in when a passive victim is picked on by a gang of thugs. However a new study finds that in real life, third parties are most likely to intervene in conflict situations when the incident involves mutual aggression between drunk men.
Michael Parks and his colleagues trained dozens of observers who analyzed 860 aggressive incidents across 503 nights in 87 large clubs and bars in Toronto, Canada. Aggression was defined as anything from a verbal insult or unwanted physical contact to a punch or kick. Incidents were twice as likely to involve one-sided aggression as opposed to mutual aggression. The most common incident involved a man making persistent unwanted overtures or physical contact towards a female. Male on male aggression was the next most frequent category. All-female aggression was rare.
Serious physical harm and intense aggression rarely arose from one-sided aggression of any kind, including male on female. Serious harm and escalation most often arose out of mutual aggression between men - the situation that provoked the highest rate of third-party involvement, all the more so if the men involved were intoxicated.