Leigh Anne Pinnock opened up on a now-deleted Twitter post about the random man who verbally abused her.
The Little Mix star arrived as a customer to the Waitrose store in Sunningdale when a male customer started to attack her verbally. "I was left in shock and completely taken back that someone could be so rude to someone for no reason" Leigh Anne wrote.
The staff ran to her defense "they demonstrated that every act of wrongfulness unleashes a million acts of kindness". The 28 years old award-winning star wrote this post to thank the staff that helped her with this incident that left her "a blubbering mess". Leigh Anne was thanking the staff of Waitrose for NOT being bystanders, and for taking action.
The bystander effect occurs when the presence of others discourages an individual from intervening in an emergency situation, against a bully, or during an assault or other crime. Individuals are less likely to offer help to a victim when there are other people present.
This effect was "born" due to an event when a man raped and murdered a young woman named Kitty Genovese. It happened in March of 1964, New York, Kitty fought her attacker and 38 people were identified to witnessed the attack. None of the witnesses intervened, or even call the police. Those people were criticized, they could help but they didn't.
John Darley and Bibb Latane' decided to investigate and find out what was the reason 38 bystanders didn't help saving Kitty Genovese. They found out that a person's judgment will be influenced by past experiences, desires, what the person sees, and the influence of other people present. People will be less likely to help when other people are present because they think someone else will take action or took action already.
Please remember Leigh Anne's story could end up very differently if the staff wouldn't have helped her. We can all learn from the Bystander Effect not relay only others to do what's needs to be done. Each one of us has the power to make a change, help others, and choose kindness.
References:
GRE Psychology by Kalpan Book