“Bystanders play a much more important role than is often assumed.”

“I’ve always struggled with the idea that violence can mainly be explained by someone’s character or background,” says the professor of sociology. “In fact, most people who grow up in difficult circumstances never resort to violence.” In her view, such explanations fall short because they overlook what is actually happening between people at that very moment.

That is why her research focuses on interactions: what exactly happens between perpetrator and victim just before a situation escalates? When does a normal interaction turn violent, and at what points is de-escalation still possible?

Looking at what really happens

To answer these questions, Lindegaard analyses video footage of real incidents. With the cooperation of authorities in Cape Town, Amsterdam and Lancaster, she collected thousands of recordings of violent situations in public spaces. This direct observation yielded a new insight: “Bystanders play a much more important role than is often assumed. They distract, step between people, make phone calls, pull those involved apart or comfort the victim,” she explains. “What is also striking is that people often do this together, without consulting one another. They intuitively coordinate their behaviour and take on different roles, depending on the situation and the stage of the conflict.”

Collective behaviour

Even more striking is that this pattern occurs in different parts of the world. “Whether in Amsterdam or Cape Town, bystanders react in broadly similar ways. This points to a form of collective behaviour that is more deeply rooted than cultural differences alone. Exactly what that mechanism is, remains unclear.” That is why she is now also looking at research on primates, to find out whether this kind of collective intervention might have evolutionary roots.

Towards an explanatory theory

With The Collective Bystander Project, funded by the European Commission, she aims to further unravel those underlying mechanisms. Once again, video analysis is central, involving 4,000 incidents from both Amsterdam and Cape Town. And once again, the research is being conducted across multiple continents. “This helps us avoid limiting the research to highly educated white people in Europe and North America. Almost all theory building, including in social psychology and criminology, is based on that group. That does not do justice to reality.”