By Claire West
In order to find out if the idea of the ‘Good Samaritan’ was alive and well in today’s society, a leading money saving website in the UK decided to carry out a social experiment looking into the kindness of random strangers.
The experiment was organised by www.VoucherCodesPro.co.uk , and took place in a busy park just outside of a popular town centre. The aim of the research was to discover whether, when faced with a stranger in distress, members of the public would stop and try to help and offer comfort, or simply ignore them and walk on by.
The video that supports these findings and results can be found at -http://www.vouchercodespro.co.uk/blog/social-experiment-reveals-the-death-of-the-good-samaritan
Two actors, one male and one female, were hired to sit on a bench in the busy park and begin to cry hysterically, in order to capture the attention of walkers-by. Whilst the majority of those who passed by visibly noticed the actor and actress in distress, 91% chose to ignore them and carry on walking.
The small number of passersby that chose to stop and help, or who offered comfort to the seemingly upset strangers, were soon alerted to the presence of the cameras. They were thanked for being good Samaritans and were given an envelope containing £50 for their gesture of good will.
Further demonstrating his obvious charitable beliefs, one elderly gentleman told the team he would be donating his reward to charity, as he had no need for it himself.
Revealing more about the nature of good Samaritans, the video experience found that kind hearted people were six times more likely to stop and comfort a female stranger in distress than a male stranger.
George Charles, spokesperson at VoucherCodesPro.co.uk, made the following comments about the Good Samaritan experiment:
“The team here at Voucher Codes Pro were very keen to see if the notion of being a Good Samaritan is dead or whether there are still people out there willing to go out of their way to help someone in need.”
“Whilst the majority of people featured in the experiment did walk straight past and ignore our actors in disguise, the fact that some did stop and offered a helping hand really lifted our spirits, so we had to reward them with a little token of our appreciation in the form of some cash.”
