It can feel like the world is pretty rough sometimes, but new research finds that people actually help each other every two minutes. A new study from researchers at UCLA, along with a team of international scientists, finds small acts of kindness happen about every two minutes all over the world.
Study authors set out to answer questions including “Are our decisions about sharing and helping shaped by the culture we grew up with?” and “Are humans generous and giving by nature?”
- To find out, they analyzed more than 40 hours of video recordings of day to day life of over 350 people in various cultures and locations including Poland, Italy, England, and Russia, as well as rural villages in Ecuador, Ghana, Laos and Aboriginal Australia.
- They found that people all over the world signal each other for help every couple of minutes and most of the time, they get the help they ask for.
- People in all the cultures included in the study tended to agree to assist when asked. When they lend a helping hand, they usually do so without explanation, but when they declined, 74% of the time they gave a specific reason.
- Statistically, people were willing to help 79% of the time, said no 10% and ignored the request 11% of the time.
Lead study author and UCLA sociologist Giovanni Rossi explains, “When we zoom in on the micro level of social interaction, cultural difference mostly goes away, and our species’ tendency to give help when needed becomes universally visible.”
Source: Study Finds
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