Reactions to Random Acts of Kindness.

JAMIE YOUNG [*]

In our fast-paced, high pressure society we are encouraged to take care of ourselves and not worry about our fellows. This has become such routine, that we have forgotten how to he kind to strangers for the sheer pleasure of helping a fellow human being. In today's world people are very skeptical when strangers perform random acts of kindness. We observed reactions to a random act of kindness. We gave 122 people a flower. We did not find significant differences in reactions to kindness by age of the receiver. However, we did find that women responded more positively to kindness than did men. Also people tended to respond more positively to kindness when the giver was white regardless of the race of the receiver.

Rarely does one turn on the television or read in a newspaper about people performing acts of kindness for strangers. Rather, we are plagued with stories of murder, burglary, and other crimes that leave us thinking the world is simply not a nice place in which to live. Strains of contemporary economic and criminological theory rest on the idea that individuals act to maximize their own interests even at the expense of others. Still, we know that there are some individuals who are likely to assist others without receiving compensation or a reward for their kindness. We define a random act of kindness as a something one does for an unknown other that they hope will benefit that individual. Examples of acts of kindness include: paying a toll for the next driver, putting money in a parking meter for someone one does not know after the meter expires, or giving a stranger a flower.

Kohn (1990) and McGarry (1986) believe that individuals are more likely to aid strangers if, as children, they witnessed their own parents and other significant adults setting an example of human kindness. Children observe those wound them and learn how to be human. If children regard adult behavior as indifferent to the suffering of others, then they are not likely to reach out themselves (see McGarry, 1986).

Additional factors that influence intervention of strangers include the number of other people around, the feeling of control over one's own life, how assertive one is, and how good one feels about one's self (Kohn, 1990). Others (Levin and Isen, 1975; Shaffer, 1985) argue that differences in kindness are not mood-induced. In the past, some argued that people experiencing negative moods might act kindly to others in order to brighten their own disposition. Benevolence associated with positive moods, though, is less self-serving and cannot be understood through these negative mood-induced models. Our moods vary and it is too simplistic to reduce explanation of kindness to these temporary states (see Shaffer, 1985).

Other researchers (Strenta and Dejong, 1981; Batson et al., 1978) find that if individuals are told (even at random) they are more kind and thoughtful than others, they will in fact engage in more random acts of kindness. The evidence on how differences in physical attractiveness shape kindness varies. Agnew (1984) found physical attractiveness is positively associated with kindness (see also Berry and McArthur, 1985). On the other hand, Gallucci (1984) found that differences in terms of kindness were indistinguishable save the most attractive who were generally perceived as LESS kind compared to others.

Interestingly, the issue of human kindness has received scant attention from social researchers. Our Lady of Lourdes School, in Mobile, Alabama, began a program known as Random Acts of Kindness (RAK). RAK is a term coined by Dr. Chuck Wall in 1994 in response to a news article that reported yet another "random act of senseless violence" (Dupree, 1996b). RAK was started with the sole intention of instilling in children, values of caring, giving, and sharing of themselves, without compensating the children with any rewards outside of a good feeling. Students at this school are learning that they can make a difference in the quality of life of another person through the RAK program. Dupree (1996a) maintains that "as educators we have the unique opportunity to guide our students into becoming responsible, caring adults. An Acts of Kindness program has the potential to assist us in this goal."