puppet vs free agent

People are sometimes puppets in situations even though they are free agents. As an example, thinking back to the subway example, when someone who's capable of standing asks a person for their seat, and they may offer it even when they do not want to. lets say, person A gave another person a seat and if another individual asked person B for a seat, he/she will feel obligated to give up their seat due it being the norm. Another example is the fact that people in large groups fail to help a person out ( even when they want to) Vs a person by himself. This is because when you are in a large group of people, you do not want to help another person out because others are not doing so. You feel obligated not to help. It becomes a shared responsibility. But when a person is by himself, they feel more comfortable helping another person out because they are no one to accept/condemn them.