“Honesty,” as the old adage goes, is indeed “the best policy.” Apparently though, not all people subscribe to that idea.
In fact, the unfortunate truth is that there are those who are willing to compromise their integrity in order to take advantage of others. For these people, personal gain is much more important than their morals.
The video below perfectly encapsulates the point I’m trying to make here.
In this social experiment, YouTuber Johal pretended to be a blind man, donning a pair of glasses and a cane, and then showed a winning lottery ticket to random individuals. The scenario was that he asked them for help to verify if the ticket really won any prize or not. According to Johal’s description, he “approached people in a rich area and a poor area” to “see who will be honest.”
So, what happened next? You can watch the video here:
Sad to say, the first two strangers ran away with the ticket while the last two individuals – both were homeless – told him the “truth” that he won. Johal then revealed his real identity and rewarded them with a little cash for their honesty.
Although the first part of the video was utterly disgusting, the last parts will definitely restore your faith in humanity.
The Popularity of Social Experiments
Wikipedia defines social experiment as “a research project conducted with human subjects in the real world.”
These days, these videos are particularly popular on YouTube and are usually heavily shared of social media. They show how people would instinctively react to different circumstances. They provide a good insight into the nature of humans, so to speak.
Social experiments can range from the serious (such as Coby Persin’s “The Dangers of Social Media: Child Predator Social Experiment”) to the funny (Aria Inthavong’s “Bros Before Hoes?: Social Experiment”).