The Good Samaritan experiment is a famous psychology experiment inspired by the Good Samaritan parable that encourages unconditional love, help, and care for others. John M. Darley and Daniel C. Batson performed an experiment to see if helping behaviors are affected not by the personalities, but by the situational behaviors of the people. Specifically, they wished to test if the lack of time would prevent students of Princeton Seminary to help a stranger that seems to be endangered in health on the street. If they do not help, they would have to step over the seemingly-hurt stranger in order to arrive at their next destination. What would they do? Check out the following slides to find out!
Surprisingly, a person with good morals is still not likely to help a seemingly-endangered person if they feel pressed by time, even if their next task is to give a speech on the Good Samaritan, the parable that encourages unconditional help!
While this experiment mainly focused on time pressures, there is a myriad of social situations that can impact one’s helpfulness. Because of this, many non-profit organizations and governmental institutions looking for ways to optimize this “unconditional” love and helpfulness to build a more connected and caring society.