Not an AIBU - but linked to other recent ones.
I think we have become too wary and this could lead to people in trouble not getting any help. The Good Samaritan would probably avoid the person injured today.
I was driving down a dark country road back to my village. There was a car with lights flashing and someone waving. My gut reaction was - is this a set up? Someone trying to attack me and steal the car. I stopped on the other side, wound down the window - turned out to be a teenage girl whose car had broken down and she had no credit on her phone. She used my phone to contact her Dad and I stayed till help arrived.
But:
a) I was nervous that it could be a car jack
b) If a man had stopped, the girl could have been nervous about being attacked.
A child by themselves. Chances of an abductor being in a mall and seeing a lost child and then deciding to abduct them are incredibly slim
Chances of child getting lost and needing adult help - much more likely.
Yet many people, especially men, would be reluctant to step in. Result - child gets distraught and parents worry.
Obviously people are going to use past experience to judge situations - especially if they've been attacked. But often the result of inaction can lead to worse outcomes - such as being alone on a road or a distraught child.
How do we overcome such feelings? It can't be good for society.