Watch the social experiment that asks: If you saw these people, would you stop to help?

A nice reminder to do something kind today.

 Rebecca Eisenberg
08.14.15

In the hustle and bustle of Big City LifeTM the notion of kindness sometimes gets lost.

We're all in such a rush to get to work or get home from work or catch that train or flag that cab or respond to that text that sometimes we get a bit lost in our thoughts and forget to look around us.

GIF from "Midnight Cowboy."

That doesn't make us horrible people; it just makes us human.

But it's also good to remind ourselves that our ability to be kind is also part of what makes us human. And kindness is a choice that we should, perhaps, strive to make more often.

A group in London recently filmed a social experiment that asked a simple question: "Would you help?"

To find an answer, the video lays out three different scenarios.

First, an elderly woman with a cane and a heavy suitcase approaches a steep set of stairs:

All GIFs via Action Productions.

Second, a man falls asleep on the Tube with a sign asking other passengers to wake him up at Clapham Junction:

And lastly, a man bumps into a young woman on the street, knocking all of her belongings to the ground:

To be honest — and maybe I'm being cynical — but it wouldn't have come as a shock if no one stopped to help these folks. After all, the National Safety Council reports that 11,000 people were injured in distracted walking incidents between 2001 and 2011. If we're so distracted that we injure ourselves while walking, how can anyone expect us to notice when strangers around us might need our help?

But waddaya know? In each of the three scenarios laid out in the video, kindness prevailed. People helped.

Before the elderly woman could reach the stairs, a man was already on his way down to help her:

The sleeping Tube passenger was woken up in time to get off at Clapham Junction:

And a man almost immediately stopped to help the young woman collect her spilled belongings:

The best part though? Each of these good Samaritans was rewarded with a song from the other "strangers" around them:

And watching the surprise on their faces as they try to figure out why their small acts of kindness garnered such praise is exactly why we should all seek to be kind to each other more often.

Watch the full video below:

humanity and culture inspirational culture
More
True
Airbnb

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg are making a serious push to expunge people's pot convictions

National Expungement Week is Spetember 21 to 28.

Courtesy of Houseplant.

In America, one dumb mistake can hang over your head forever.

Nearly 30% of the American adult population — about 70 million people — have at least one criminal conviction that can prevent them from being treated equally when it comes to everything from job and housing opportunities to child custody.

Twenty million of these Americans have felony convictions that can destroy their chances of making a comfortable living and prevents them from voting out the lawmakers who imprisoned them.

Many of these convictions are drug-related and stem from the War on Drugs that began in the U.S. '80s. This war has unfairly targeted the minority community, especially African-Americans.

Keep Reading Show less
marijuana expungement national expumgement week stoner comedies Seth Rogen Evan Goldberg High Times seth rogen even golldberg national expungement week
Culture

Breaking down the conspiracy theory mindset at the heart of climate change denial

Becker1999/Flickr

Climate change is happening because the earth is warming at an accelerated rate, a significant portion of that acceleration is due to human activity, and not taking measures to mitigate it will have disastrous consequences for life as we know it.

In other words: Earth is heating up, it's kinda our fault, and if we don't fix it, we're screwed.

This is the consensus of the vast majority of the world's scientists who study such things for a living. Case closed. End of story.

How do we know this to be true? Because pretty much every reputable scientific organization on the planet has examined and endorsed these conclusions. Thousands of climate studies have been done, and multiple peer-reviewed studies have been done on those studies, showing that somewhere between 84 and 97 percent of active climate science experts support these conclusions. In fact, the majority of those studies put the consensus well above 90%.

Keep Reading Show less
conspiracy theories climate change
Nature

After going viral for helping a 91-year-old, this humble plumber now exclusively serves the elderly and disabled

via James Anderson

Two years ago, a tweet featuring the invoice for a fixed boiler went viral because the customer, a 91-year-old woman with leukemia, received the services for free.

"No charge for this lady under any circumstances," the invoice read. "We will be available 24 hours to help her and keep her as comfortable as possible."

The repair was done by James Anderson, 52, a father-of-five from Burnley, England. "James is an absolute star, it was overwhelming to see that it cost nothing," the woman's daughter told CNN.

Keep Reading Show less
Heroes

A mother's viral plea for kids with life-or-death food allergies is one we all need to hear

HR Mom/Facebook

I live in a family with various food intolerances. Thankfully, none of them are super serious, but we are familiar with the challenges of finding alternatives to certain foods, constantly checking labels, and asking restaurants about their ingredients.

In our family, if someone accidentally eats something they shouldn't, it's mainly a bit of inconvenient discomfort. For those with truly life-threatening food allergies, the stakes are much higher.

I can't imagine the ongoing stress of deadly allergy, especially for parents trying to keep their little ones safe.

Keep Reading Show less
popular