Somebody else's problem

2018-11-19T14:08:29Z

1.46.161.103: Reverted definitition back to its original definition found of the first revision of the topic as I find it to be a much more accurate definition that the current.

{{about|a popular phrase|Wikipedia's attitude towards lackadaisical ethos|WP:SEP}}

{{merge to|Diffusion of responsibility|discuss=Talk:Diffusion of responsibility#Proposed merge with Somebody else's problem|date=October 2018}}
'''Somebody else's problem''' (also known as '''someone else's problem''' or '''SEP''') is a psychological effect where people choose to dissociate themselves from an issue that may be in critical need of recognition. Such issues may be of large concern to the population as a whole but can easily be a choice of ignorance by an individual. Author [[Douglas Adams|Douglas Adams']] comedic description of the condition, which he ascribes to a physical "SEP field", has helped make it a generally recognized phenomenon. Somebody Else's Problem has been used to capture public attention on matters that may have been overlooked and has less commonly been used to identify concerns that an individual suffering symptoms of depression should ignore. This condition has also been employed as trivial shorthand to describe factors that are "out of scope" in the current context.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://meetings.informs.org/Conf/Miami2001//TALKS/Sponsor-25.html |title=INFORMS Miami 2001 Annual Meeting – TB18.2 Minisum Location with Closest Euclidean Distances |accessdate=2008-06-07}}</ref>

==Origin==

In [[Douglas Adams]]'s 1982 novel ''[[Life, the Universe and Everything]]'' (in ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy#Novels|The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' [[comedy science fiction]] series), the character [[Ford Prefect (character)|Ford Prefect]] says,

{{quote|An SEP is something we can't see, or don't see, or our brain doesn't let us see, because we think that it's somebody else's problem. That’s what SEP means. Somebody Else’s Problem. The brain just edits it out, it's like a blind spot.}}

The narration then explains:

{{quote|The Somebody Else's Problem field... relies on people's natural predisposition not to see anything they don't want to, weren't expecting, or can't explain. If Effrafax had painted the mountain pink and erected a cheap and simple Somebody Else’s Problem field on it, then people would have walked past the mountain, round it, even over it, and simply never have noticed that the thing was there.}}

==References by others==

Since the publication of {{H2G2|book|3|link=yes}}, the phrase has been used by others, such as:

* Referring to a team working on a [[computer programming]] project, [[Alan F. Blackwell]] once wrote: "Many sub-goals can be deferred to the degree that they become what is known amongst professional programmers as an 'S.E.P.' – somebody else's problem."<ref name=ppig-1997-01>{{Cite journal

|url = http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~afb21/publications/PPIG97.html
|title = Simulating a Software Project: The PoP Guns go to War
|last1 = Blackwell |first1 = Alan F.|author-link= Alan F. Blackwell
|last2 = Arnold |first2 = H.L.
|journal = Proceedings of the 9th Annual Meeting of the Psychology of Programming Interest Group
|pages = 53–60
|date = January 1997
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081026050403/http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~afb21/publications/PPIG97.html
|archive-date = 2008-10-25
|dead-url = no
|access-date = 2015-03-24
|quote =
}}</ref>

* Christopher Negus, writing on the origin of [[Unix]] at [[Bell Labs]] in the 1970s, described Bell Labs at the time as "a think tank where ideas came first and profits were somebody else's problem".<ref name=rhel4bib-2006>{{Cite book

|last = Negus
|first = Christopher
|title = Fedora 5 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 Bible
|chapter = Linux's roots in Unix (part 1, chapter 1, section 3)
|publisher = Wiley
|location = New York
|via = [[TechTarget]]
|series = Bible (Book 327)
|date = 2006-05-10
|page = 6
|isbn = 978-0-4717-5491-6 
|oclc = 69746564
|chapter-url = http://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/feature/Linuxs-roots-in-Unix
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20131213203844/http://searchitchannel.techtarget.com/feature/Linuxs-roots-in-Unix
|archive-date = 2013-12-13
|dead-url = no
|access-date = 2015-03-25
|quote =
}}</ref>

* It has been used as a fictitious example of "psychological invisibility".<ref>[http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/04/13/sight-unseen-critic-at-large-kathryn-schulz Sight unseen], Catherine Schulz, [[The New Yorker]], April 13, 2015</ref>

==See also==
{{col div|colwidth=30em}}
* [[Buck passing]]
* [[Bystander effect]]
* [[Externality]]
* [[First they came ...]]
* [[Global issue]]
* [[Inattentional blindness]]
* [[NIMBY]] (Not In My Back Yard)
* [[Other people's money (disambiguation)|Other people's money]]
* [[Sheeple]]
{{colend}}

==References==
{{reflist|30em}}

{{HitchhikerMiscellanea}}

[[Category:Group processes]]
[[Category:The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy technology]]
[[Category:Perception]]
[[Category:Problem solving]]

[[cs:Seznam pojmů, osob a vynálezů ze Stopařova průvodce po Galaxii#Pole problému někoho jiného]]
[[de:Hintergründe zu Per Anhalter durch die Galaxis#Problem-anderer-Leute-Feld]]

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Somebody else's problem