Overpopulation has immediate effects on the population as a whole such as further increasing the issue caused by the known problem the bystander effect. The bystander effect is the social phenomenon in which people ignore people in need due to the amount of other people present in a situation, typically an emergency. As there are more people during an emergency diffusion of responsibility occurs in which as there are more people around each person is less likely to provide assistance to a person in need as they'll believe someone else will help. Considering that as populations become more densely populated emergencies are more likely to happen but the bystander effect creates more people who are less likely to intervene in an emergency. Thus, a real problem to a growing population would be the everyday occurrence of the bystander effect in which people will ignore one another for fear of any consequence and to stay anonymous in public situations.
Bystander Effect. (n.d.). Retrieved May 13, 2015, from http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/bystander_effect.htm