Diffusion of responsibility

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.

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Diffusion of responsibility can manifest itself

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• 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.
 
Diffusion of responsibility: For example ►