The murder of Catherine Genovese is the most well-known case of the bystander effect. The bystander effect suggests that the more bystanders witness an emergency, the smaller the chance that someone intervenes. This study will try to conceptualize the bystander effect by using game theory. By illustrating the cost of helping as the effect of the number of people who are present to a person’s payoff and thus to his strategy, this paper will try to explain the intricacies of the bystander effect. Furthermore, the two solutions most often mentioned in the literature, namely social rewards and punishments, are explored. The results indicate that when the number of people increases, the possibility of people helping decreases, however, this progress is significantly—and similarly—slowed by the introduction of rewards and punishments. Therefore, social rewards and punishments are possible solutions to the bystander effect that should be further explored.