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(Message started by: BenVitale on Nov 11^th, 2009, 12:11am)

Title: What-would-you-do experiments
Post by BenVitale on Nov 11^th, 2009, 12:11am

Experiments 1 & 2:

What-would-you-do experiments are social experiments that put people in difficult situations to see how they’ll react.

#1 :

CCTV cameras captured at least a dozen drivers swerving around a woman as she lay unconscious and bleeding in a road in south-east London.

Woman left injured in busy road (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/3700446.stm)

Would you help an injured person? (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/3701848.stm)

Would you have stopped to help?
What does this say about our attitudes towards strangers?

Hypothesis : People in a rush would be much less likely to show helping behavior.

It seems that people fail to stop and help a victim because they are obsessed with haste. People who were in a hurry did not even notice the victim ... perhaps, once they arrived at their destination and had time to think about the consequences, they felt some guilt and anxiousness

It seems to suggest that people were so wrapped up in their own world that they genuinely did not notice the victim, which gave the impression that they were uncaring.

Could anyone offer any other explanations?

#2 :

Watch also : Are You a Good Samaritan? (http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/WhatWouldYouDo/story?id=4420829&page=1)

Find out whether bystanders stop to assist a stranger in need

Would you stop to help someone in need or would you keep walking?
If you see something, and you think it's wrong, do you step in or do you step away?
What people say and what they do aren't always the same.
And, what drives someone to help an individual they don't know?
how many other people saw the same situation and did nothing?
People in the experiment passed by someone in distress.
What make them ignore someone in need?

What would you do in the same situation?

Title: Re: What-would-you-do experiments
Post by towr on Nov 11^th, 2009, 2:09am

on 11/11/09 at 00:11:38, BenVitale wrote:

CCTV cameras captured at least a dozen drivers swerving around a woman as she lay unconscious and bleeding in a road in south-east London.

If I recall correctly, unless it was a virtually identical situation, there were actually already people around helping her, and had already called the emergency services. The camera doesn't show the sidewalk.
So supposing she was already being helped, what should the drivers have done? Not swerve and drive over her? Stop, cause a traffic jam, and prevent the paramedics from being able to get there?

Quote:

Would you have stopped to help?

I would probably have stopped, but wouldn't have known what to do to help.

Quote:

What does this say about our attitudes towards strangers?

Very little. It is anecdotal and there is not a sufficient description of the situation. One shouldn't jump to conclusions based on limited information.

Quote:

Hypothesis : People in a rush would be much less likely to show helping behavior.

I doubt it. There are plenty of stories of crowds standing by watching someone drown because nobody thinks to jump in first and do something ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effect ). The only likely difference haste makes is that it makes you pay less attention to the details of your surrounding.

Quote:

It seems that people fail to stop and help a victim because they are obsessed with haste.

I don't think it has anything to do with obsession. If you talk on the phone while driving your attention also decreases, but that isn't because you're obsessed with talking on the phone. They're simply tasks competing for attention.

Quote:

People who were in a hurry did not even notice the victim

Then they would have driven over her, wouldn't they.

Quote:

perhaps, once they arrived at their destination and had time to think about the consequences, they felt some guilt and anxiousness

Then they would have noticed her, wouldn't they.

Quote:

It seems to suggest that people were so wrapped up in their own world that they genuinely did not notice the victim, which gave the impression that they were uncaring.

Could anyone offer any other explanations?

We don't have a complete picture of what really happened. But if this incident is the one I had heard about, and memory serves me right, then she was already being helped and this whole story is bunk. Crowding a victim doesn't help her.

Quote:

Watch also : Are You a Good Samaritan? (http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/WhatWouldYouDo/story?id=4420829&page=1)

Find out whether bystanders stop to assist a stranger in need

"A stranger in need"? It's a grown man sitting on the grass sobbing. There is no indication if or what kind of "need" that stranger has, or indeed how strange he is. To quote:
In an interview afterwards, the man told us that he did not stop because he thought the man appeared crazy and he was uncomfortable. He said he felt threatened, adding, "If you are scared of the person, the fear alone will deter you."
It's a ridiculous experiment. Maybe if it were a crying child instead, it would have a point. But a grown man crying? What are you supposed to do? Now if he was lying on the ground with a gaping head-wound, that's something where you can tell help is needed, and what you should do.

Quote:

Would you stop to help someone in need or would you keep walking?

If it was clear they needed help, and what kind of help, and it was a kind of help I could reasonably provide, then I'd like to think so.
If they look like they're crazy, I don't know what they want, and I don't know what to do, then no, probably not.

Quote:

what drives someone to help an individual they don't know?

Knowing what to do probably rates highly.
Most people are perfectly willing to help if you ask them, and tell them what to do, as long as it's a reasonable request. But if they are not asked and have to show initiative themselves, they have to consider whether their help is wanted, whether they know how to help, whether it is appropriate that they do so, whether they are suited to the task, etc, etc.

Title: Re: What-would-you-do experiments
Post by ThudanBlunder on Nov 11^th, 2009, 4:23am

on 11/11/09 at 00:11:38, BenVitale wrote:

Woman left injured in busy road

A quick look at the photo reveals one cannot rule out that she was an active member of al-Qaeda, as the main difference between a dead dog in the road and a dead al-Qaeda in the road is that there may be skid marks in front of the dead dog.

Title: Re: What-would-you-do experiments
Post by BenVitale on Nov 11^th, 2009, 11:20am

In experiment #2, there were 22 volunteers. Each of them got $75 for traveling expense, and were told about the Good Samaritan story from the Bible : The story is about a man who is beaten by robbers and left for dead on the side of the road. Two religious men come by and ignore the victim....

They rushed right by the man in "distress" to give a speech on the Good Samaritan story !

Ironic, isn't it?

Read more here (http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=9574827700)

Title: Re: What-would-you-do experiments
Post by towr on Nov 11^th, 2009, 1:26pm

on 11/11/09 at 11:20:16, BenVitale wrote:

Ironic, isn't it?

No, it was just a bad experiment.
Perhaps it would be ironic if the man in the park had been a guy that was just robbed and beaten to a pulp, and not some crazy person sitting around sobbing.

Title: Re: What-would-you-do experiments
Post by BenVitale on Nov 13^th, 2009, 12:36pm

on 11/11/09 at 13:26:08, towr wrote:

No, it was just a bad experiment.
Perhaps it would be ironic if the man in the park had been a guy that was just robbed and beaten to a pulp, and not some crazy person sitting around sobbing.

Most men are not comfortable to watch men crying in public. I don't do it either.

Would I do it for $500 or $1,000? If I needed the money, I would do it and participate in this experiment.

It is difficult to cry in public, because we are told to be more stoic, that big boys don't cry ... that crying was for losers and sissies.

There are times and places when it is socially acceptable, such as with disaster or traumatic experience :
- funeral
- at sports games
- perhaps when losing lots of money

Title: Re: What-would-you-do experiments
Post by towr on Nov 14^th, 2009, 3:44am

That's hardly the point though, is it.
If someone is lying on the floor bleeding, you can tend to their wounds.
If someone is lying unconscious in a burning building, you can pull them out.
If someone is looking for something, you can help them look.
If someone dropped something, you can help them pick it up.
But if someone is crying, what kind of help do they need? Do they even need help? What are you supposed to do?

Of all the scenarios they could think of where they want to induce helping behaviour, they picked one of the most ludicrous ones. They would have done better to have someone drop a bag of groceries, or fake a mugging. You can't compare a real help-scenario with a man sobbing in the park. I don't see how that says anything about people's willingness to help.

Title: Re: What-would-you-do experiments
Post by BenVitale on Nov 17^th, 2009, 11:36am

We don't have enough information about the 22 people who participated in this experiment. However, this parable is deeply engrained into our consciousness, into our culture.

And, in the studio, they were told about the story of the Good amaritan, and asked to write a speech about it. So the story was fresh into their minds as they walked in the park on their way to deliver a speech. They had an opportunity to demonstrate an act of kindness, to act out the good samaritan, but most of them did not.

Last Sunday, I went to a Catholic church to test out some of the church goers, about this parable and other parables... I shall post my views in my next posts.

The parable of the Good Samaritan (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Good_Samaritan)

The point of this parable is : to illustrate that human kindness and fellow feeling must be available to all, and that fulfilling the spirit of the Law is just as important as fulfilling the letter of the Law ...

Jesus puts the definition of neighbor into an enlarged context, beyond what people usually thought of as a neighbor.

Title: Re: What-would-you-do experiments
Post by BenVitale on May 9^th, 2010, 12:12pm

I watched on Friday on ABC the following show:

Lost Key or Bike Thief: What Would You Do? (http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/bike-theft/story?id=10556016)

Parkgoers Face Dilemma When Young Man Tries to Steal a Bike in Broad Daylight

In the experiment: A young white man, a young African-American man, an attractive woman

Many in the park assumed he worked for the park and wasn't a thief.

Even an African-American woman said, "I remember thinking young, white men don't usually carry burglary tools"

Watch how parkgoers' reactions change when the thief in the experiment is ....

... a young African-American man

... an attractive woman

What would you do in this situation?

If you see an attractive woman doing something she's not supposed to do, like stealing something, how would you react?

Title: Re: What-would-you-do experiments
Post by towr on May 9^th, 2010, 12:53pm

I probably wouldn't do anything in either case. It's rather unlikely for someone to break a lock and steal a bike in broad daylight.
I suppose you could snap a picture on your mobile phone with camera and post it on twitter for future reference in case anyone wonders who stole their bike. Supposing you have a phone with camera and twitter, which I don't.

Title: I'm not always rational
Post by BenVitale on May 10^th, 2010, 11:14am

Yeah, people must do their own calculations when it comes to deciding whether or not to intervene when confronted with an ethical dilemma.

In the first scenario, the young teen confessed she was stealing the bike. Nothing was done.
The thief's confession was safe.

One woman went so far as to wish Kelly good luck stealing the bike. Remarkable!

In the second scenario, the young African-American was not so lucky.

John Quinones should have also conducted the experiment with the park filled with African-American, and in the third scenario, a park filled with women.

I'm particularly interested in the third scenario: when the thief is a beautiful woman.

In the third scenario, Nobody tried to stop the beautiful blonde. Actually most people offered her some assistance.
Only one woman dialed 911 on her cell phone.

A similar experience happened to me. I was in clothing store and I saw an attractive
woman shoplifting. She noticed that I was watching her, she smiled and I smiled back at her -
reassuring her that I was cool. She was the kind of a woman that I would love to go on a date
with her.

So I wonder how would I have reacted if I didn't find her attractive.
What if the woman reminded me of someone that I didn't like -- someone who was annoying, obnoxious, even downright disgusting to me at some point in time?

In the Re-Creating the 'Beach Blanket Experiment' (http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/story?id=7091942&page=2), psychology professor Carrie Keating said:

Quote:

Individuals who are watching that scenario might be a little unsure about whether or not intervention was actually required. … The greater the ambiguity, the less likely it is for people to respond."

When I saw the attractive woman shoplifting, there was no ambiguity. I knew what was happening, but I chose to do nothing.

She was very attractive, and she flashed a beautiful smile. That was enough for me.
That was the social glue for me that Carrie Keating talks about.

Yale psychology professor Jack Dovidio said:

"We should stop, we should think, we should pause. We should be rational and then we should do the right thing."

Well, I'm not always rational

Title: Re: What-would-you-do experiments
Post by wade32 on Apr 4^th, 2012, 9:43pm

It's not so much as being a good Samaritan than it is being compassionate. Do you have enough compassion to help a woman lying in the middle of the road rather than getting to your destination. Emotion is what tells us the decision that we are going to make in that split second!