Something occurred to me today, as I pondered the many preconceptions some people have of humanity. They tend to espouse individuals as capable of the highest order of virtues, yet seem to be entirely convinced that crowds are incapable of the same. And certainly there are plenty of psychological phenomena (such as the Milgram trials or the diffusion of responsibility that results in no one helping a person in trouble) that seem to support this.

As it turns out, however, there is plenty of emerging research starting to show that not only is the advent of the information age helping to mollify some of these results (greater percentages of people are becoming aware of these "crowd failings" and compensating for them by always acting), but similar fields of research are showing that all it takes is a common danger (rather than danger to an individual) to galvanize us to cooperate with each other.

An interesting test, in my view, would be to ask a misanthropist this question: how do you think people generally react as crowds in a natural disaster?

Chances are that they (and even most others who are generally positively minded about other people) will grit their teeth and speak of panic, looting, anarchy, rape, pillaging, etc.

The truth is much more uplifting:

The Mass Psychology of Disasters and Emergency Evacuations

The entire paper makes for a wonderfully interesting read, but the truly poignant bits (for the time constrained among you) are summated in the Executive Summary (pg. 4).

... we found almost no evidence of mass panic. On the contrary, mutual helping of strangers was commonplace...

As it turns out, humans are not only capable of coming together to work towards everyone's benefit regardless of individual costs... we are naturally predisposed to it under the right conditions. No enlightenment necessary.

Yes, we can be huge assholes in groups. No doubt. But we can also be awesome. The dualistic nature of man is not restricted to individuals. Which means, if a single person is capable of being good overall, then so is humanity as a whole. Once again, that quote from Ghandi comes to mind:

"What is true of the individual will be tomorrow true of the whole nation if individuals will but refuse to lose heart and hope."

That's actually pretty encouraging. After wading in a lot of misanthropy now that I've mired myself in the TCB community, this was an uplifting read

This really helps, because something is needed as a counterbalance to the increasing amounts of TCB fics. It's the little things like this that provide proof that we're not just a bunch of raging asshats who learned how to use fire.

Wow! Talk about a breath of fresh air.

Contrary to what SOME TCB authors think, people are generally good.

This is just reinforcing what I already knew: people are good by default. Sure there are evil people in the world, but the good outnumber the evil, vastly.

Also reinforcing this is one thing I learned from my training as an EMT. Apparently, during mass disasters, a fair portion of people injured are due to attempts to rescue others. Also, sometimes we need to keep people from trying to help — lest they produce more casualties.

In a twisted way, this kinda shows that the desire to help others can be so strong it sometimes overrides common sense.

Tell me, if Humans aee bastards, would this phenomenon occur?

302387

Well said!

Also, huge props to you for being an EMT. You have my respect, sir.

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Feel free to introduce some personal examples here of you witnessing the nobler nature of man asserting itself (to put it as unnecessarily dramatically as possible).

For instance, I (relatively) recently witnessed a very mundane, perfect case-in-point of this. Of course, as an anecdote, this carries no weight in terms of scientific research... but I believe it's both poignant and relevant considering the results of actual studies.

I was at a local AMC, watching the recently released, final Harry Potter movie with my significant other. At a mid-point in the film, a tortured groaning resounded throughout the theater, giving us all a fright accompanied by a moment of confusion. Apparently, a lone movie-goer had suffered a siezure.

Now, without close friends or family nearby to galvanize the crowd, standard research would predict that the effect of diffusion of responsibility would result in a good chance of no-one helping the poor bloke, each individual expecting someone else to step in. In reality, 911 received probably around 11 separate calls (including one from myself) from people rushing to get him help as quickly as possible. Several other movie-goers organized themselves a little better, contacting the theater managers and getting some folks to sweep the other theaters for the presence of an off-duty medical professional (eventually running across a helpful dentist with emt training).

When the ambulance finally arrived, they found a single, sick man, surrounded by a concerned, comforting crowd of perfect strangers. The EMTs on the scene assured us he would be alright, and we all returned to our seats once he was safely on his way.

Probably what astounded me most about that experience wasn't that people were willing to help a stranger in trouble... it was the sheer number of people who independently decided to make a concerted, genuine effort to make absolutely certain that this person would be ok. I missed Snape's famed death scene for what was probably a superflous, unnecessary act (with so many others already calling and acting)... and I don't regret it in the slightest.

Obviously, none of this was newsworthy enough to even make a mention in the back pages of the local paper. However, if no one had acted, and the man had suffered injury for it, it would almost certainly have been regional news. It makes me wonder... just how much goodness do we miss on a daily basis because we rush to point at the worst of our failings? On the other hand, it makes me glad that we see a crowd failing to help someone in need as strange and unusual enough to be newsworthy, the implication being that the opposite is what we expect as the norm.

Again... I want to reiterate that people who shout out our sins are very important. You can't fix something if you don't know it's broken. But, it's far too easy to become discouraged in the mire of people yelling at everyone about how much evil we all do. I want this thread to be a place people can go to see good examples... to feel a bit better about their fellow man and make it a little easier to "refuse to lose heart and hope".

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A perfectly fine example. It doesn't have to be something you did or participated in (though, that's also more than welcome). It can also be something you witnessed. Or even just heard about. The key here, is that it has personally affected you... Stuck out in your mind, as it were, as a counter-example to the negativity.

And I want the examples to be mundane. In fact, the more so the better. I also want people to be more aware of the good they and others do on a daily basis (even if it's something as "small" as helping an old lady pick up her dropped groceries or someone sharing their lunch with the homeless guy outside your building).

Valiant acts of gallantry and heroism are wonderful and welcome... but simple, daily acts of kindness are just as important here.

I'm to start donating blood today; regularly.

It's my small part to help those in need.

How does that ad go again? For every corrupt person there are 8000 blood donators in the world? Something like that.