Psychologists studying how a community responds to violence say that most reactions are expressed in one of four ways, and sometimes combinations of them: avoidance, apathy, anger and empathetic action.

Monday afternoon’s shooting in a parking lot at Baptist Memorial Hospital-Golden Triangle elicited an unfortunate and counterproductive reaction we have previously noted in recent years in Columbus.

Avoidance is, essentially, a “not my problem” response. Most of us don’t live in neighborhoods where the ambient noises that interrupt our sleep are gunfire and sirens. But avoidance is difficult when it happens in places we generally assume to be safe, such as a hospital parking lot.

Avoidance never presents a solution or even a step forward.

If avoidance is a bad response to violence, apathy is even worse. No sooner than the first reports of the hospital shooting emerged, social media was afire with apathy, which most often manifests itself in cynicism that borders on a perverse sense of pleasure. It’s the “Columbus is a crime-infested hellhole” sentiment that is neither accurate nor helpful. We are who we tell ourselves we are. If we define our community by its worst elements, we will lose the collective will and patience needed to make a difference. It’s a reaction we don’t see in Starkville, although that city is comparably afflicted with violence.

Anger is a natural reaction to violence and can be good or bad. Good – “righteous” – anger can rally a community. Bad anger can result in taking the law into your own hands or being hostile or suspicious of strangers when there is no reason. On Tuesday morning, a group of people gathered on Seventh Street North in Columbus, carrying signs that read, “Stop the Shooting.” It’s an expression of anger, frustration, fear.

Finally, there is empathetic action. It’s the road less traveled because it doesn’t produce the immediate effect we demand in an era of instant gratification. Empathetic action prods and probes. It seeks understanding and engagement, pursues collaboration rather than confrontation. It is an indirect response to a direct issue. It takes the long view. It’s the belief that any act of kindness and goodwill, though unrelated to the issue of violence, is our best reaction to it.

When someone takes the time to pick up litter or lends a hand to someone in need or keeps an eye out for a neighbor’s property or shares information with police, that person is responding to violence in a productive way. Empathetic action says, “We’re all in this together.”

The motorists who passed the group with the “Stop the Shooting” signs Tuesday almost certainly agree with the sentiment and would stop the shooting were it within their power to do so.

That’s true of our community as a whole, no matter what cynical social media trolls would have us believe.

We cannot stop the violence with one bold act. But we can change the climate where violence breeds by taking care of each other. Violence cannot long endure where people love their neighbors.

That is something we all are equipped to do.

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.

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