Small acts of kindness are frequent and universal, study finds

Key takeawaysA study by researchers from UCLA, Australia, Ecuador, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. found that people around the world signal others for assistance every couple of minutes.The research, which examined behaviors in towns and rural areas in several different countries, revealed that  people comply with these small requests for help far more often than they decline them.The findings suggest that  people from all cultures have more similar cooperative behaviors than prior research has established.A new study by UCLA sociologist Giovanni Rossi and an international team of collaborators finds that people rely on each other for help constantly.In the  study, published inScientific Reports, the authors — who also included researchers at universities in Australia, Ecuador, Germany, the Netherlands and the U.K. — explore the human capacity for cooperation. They found that people signal a need for assistance, such as asking someone to pass them a utensil, once every couple of minutes.And the research revealed that those requests for help do not go unanswered: Across cultures, people comply with these small requests far more often than they decline them. On the rare occasions when people do decline, they explain why.Those human tendencies — to help others when needed and to explain when such help can’t be given — transcends cultural differences, suggesting that, deep down, people from all cultures have more similar cooperative behaviors than prior resear...
Source: UCLA Newsroom: Health Sciences - Category: Universities & Medical Training Source Type: news