While driving to work, LaVerne's car started smoking and broke down on a road with a lot of traffic. Her cell phone's battery died, so she could not call for help. For more than 2 hours, she was unsuccessful in flagging down someone to stop to help. Finally, a police officer offered assistance. LaVerne's difficulty in getting someone to help is an example of:

the bystander effect

Explanation: When the tendency of getting help decreases due to the number of people available at a scene especially in cases of emergency. These phenomenon is known as the bystander effect.

In the scenario above, LaVerne's inability to get help could be attributed to the bystander effect whereby the tendency of getting help in an emergency situation is reduced due to the number of people available at yhe scene, this is occurs due to the fact that the various individuals see themselves as not been in the position of taking responsibility due to the large number of people present. Therefore, the more people there is in such situation, the less likely people around will commit to taking responsibility.