What Would You Do??

"What if you were walking through a park and you saw a couple get into a heated argument? The man didn't hit the woman, but seemed to be on the edge of physical violence and pushed her.

Or, imagine if you were in your neighborhood convenience store, and you saw a brazen shoplifter at work. The shop owner's not a friend, but she's always been friendly to you."

I watched a special on TV last night (Primetime) where they had actors create the first scenario and an actual shop owner help with the second. I was shocked at how few people did anything. More than twice as many women stopped as men in the abusive situation (5 out of 92 men and 14 out of 100 women) and only two people (both women) told the shop owner about the shoplifting the whole day that they had that experiment going.

My questions are, why are women more inclined to help? What would you do? Have you ever had an experience like this?

Posted by Whit at 08:11   | (pre-trackback) 5