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.