Social Experiment: Homeless Gives Money to Wealthy

[AOS-]

Honestly can't say I know much about the subject as there are plenty of similar experiments that involve testing the generosity of wealthier folks.

This experiment flips that around: unwealthy people handing money to the wealthy. How do they respond?



I'm a bit shocked at the first guy's reaction, but I think I could understand where he's coming from. The video creator says it himself. Giving money to the needy is commonly seen as a generous act, but at the same time, it can also be interpreted as delivering the message "one is better than the other". While I think it's safe to say that not absolutely true, I feel its a mentality that's ingrained deeply in a large group of people who hold firm belief that money is a measure of success.

Maybe it's not that. Maybe it's a simple matter of maintaining image...
"Rich person takes money from a poor person." "Oh what is he/she thinking?! Greedy much?!"

Maybe it's they've been trained to not accept money from someone who needs it more than they do?

How would you honestly feel if someone of lesser wealth than you offered to help you financially? Will you feel good that you became a bit richer? Will you feel bad for taking it later?

Do you think this experiment was entirely a waste of time (and why)?

I'd like to hear the thoughts of GTPlanet's community.

 

[KSaiyu]

I'd probably play spot the hidden camera. It's kind of like hearing Sepp Blatter give an honest account of his tenure - my mind wouldn't be able to comprehend.

 

[Johnnypenso]

I've never seen a homeless person without shoes.

 

[Dotini]

I've never seen a homeless person without shoes.

Back in my student days, there was an itinerant chess hustler who preyed upon the coffee shops in the U-District. He was always shoeless; his feet hard, horned and dirty.

 

[Johnnypenso]

Back in my student days, there was an itinerant chess hustler who preyed upon the coffee shops in the U-District. He was always shoeless; his feet hard, horned and dirty.

Things are a little colder up this way Up here it would be a dead give away although Canada being what it is, people would be saying, "Oh you poor dear, I'm so sorry, where are your shoes, do you need some shoes?"

 

[Joel]

I'd probably play spot the hidden camera. It's kind of like hearing Sepp Blatter give an honest account of his tenure - my mind wouldn't be able to comprehend.

Yeah, there's a lot of videos of this kind of thing and I always find they're created in such a way that it's really misleading.

There was one I saw a while back of a hipstery looking guy going into a pizza shop and asking customers sitting down eating 1 or 2 slices if he could have a slice because he was hungry and them obviously saying no. Then his friends give a homeless guy a whole pizza, and the same guy asks the homeless man for a slice. The takeaway is supposed to be "those with nothing are often the most generous". All I thought was that of course someone with an entire large pizza is going to be more willing to share than people who only bought slices.

 

[Danoff]

Human psychology when it comes to money is very weird. If someone gives you $5 out of the blue, you don't think of it as yours for a while. If you lost $5 randomly an hour later, you'd think to yourself "easy come easy go". If you lost $5 a week later it would feel like you lost $5. So if you give a dude a pizza he's not thinking of it has really his yet. If someone else wants to get some, he's thinking, "well I still gained half a pizza, so sure". If he held on to that pizza for a few days (in his homeless refrigerator that he doesn't have), he'd feel like it was his and be less likely to part with it.

This also happens for unrelated items. I've had an unexpected $500 expense show up that upset me, and my wife gotten an unexpected bonus of $1000 around the same time. I was still ultimately unhappy with the $500 expense... even though I was net positive between the two events. Furthermore, I was more unhappy with the loss than I was for a gain that was twice as much. How stupid is that?

It's a psychological fact that people are more concerned about loss than gain when it comes to money. This is especially documented in poker and causes people to make poor statistical decisions. It occurs in all aspects of life. Gambling, many times, is designed to take advantage of human emotional decisions that get in the way of good statistical decisions.

So let's say a guy walking down the street has a net worth of $500k. A bum offers him $5. He thinks "Is it worth $5 to interact with this guy? To be seen taking $5 from this guy? To deprive this guy of his $5? To deprive whoever else this guy was going to give $5? No. I have plenty of money. I don't want YOUR $5."

Same guy is asked for $5. He thinks "Do I owe you $5? Do I want to bestow my property onto you? Do I like you as a person? Do I want to help you? Do I think you deserve to be helped? What are you going to do with this money? Will giving this money prevent future interactions with you? No. I don't want to give you MY money".

Now to someone who has significantly more than $5, the decision of whether to accept $5 is not in actuality any different than the decision of whether to give $5 from a financial standpoint. But the psychology behind it is totally different. Furthermore, the signal it sends is totally different.

Giving someone $5 incentivizes them to come back and ask again. You're effectively paying them for the service of asking you for money. You've hired them to perform the job of begging. Now, taking $5 from someone doesn't obviously incentivize them to come back again, but for whatever reason, they want you to take it.

If you don't want to be talked to by a bum on the street, the only way to be sure to not incentivize them to be there next time is to not give them what they want. That includes not giving them money they ask for, and not taking anything from them that they want to give.

Also, if you don't trust them, the only course of action is to not do anything they ask for.

Now I'll watch the video.

Edit:

Interesting. The angry emotional reaction is probably a lack of self-confidence. The notion that a homeless person could just look at you and think you need help implies that there's something wrong with the way you appear.

 

[MatskiMonk]

Interesting. The angry emotional reaction is probably a lack of self-confidence. The notion that a homeless person could just look at you and think you need help implies that there's something wrong with the way you appear.

Personally I don't think it's that specific, I just think it appears to the people that some kind of joke is being made at their expense, and since they likely take themselves quite seriously, they get angry.

___


I'd like to think I'd be like the guy at 2:36, but mostly I think I'd just smile and walk off. First two things through my head would be: It's a set-up, you are about to get mugged, don't stop. Or, It's a set-up, you're being watched, better be polite.

Most I ever gave a beggar was £10. The police saw it, and came to make sure I wasn't being mugged

Beggars: Sit about doing nothing hoping someone will give them some money. Benefits system: Sit about doing nothing expecting someone to give them some money. I know which bugs me the most.

 

[Johnnypenso]

Reminds me of a story. In Windsor we have "homeless" people that hang out near intersections, standing in the median where the left turn lanes are, usually holding up a cardboard sign saying, "Hungry" or "Need work" or something along those lines. This winter there was a young, fairly attractive women that used to hang out in on particularly busy intersection. I saw here many times, always looking sad and depressed, and freezing at the same time. Never smiled. But it didn't look "right". She had on a decent quality jacket and jeans and boots, not great, but in the kind of condition you wouldn't expect from someone homeless.

So one day I pull into the gas station on that corner and as I'm filling up I see a brand new Chrysler minivan pull up and she comes over and hops into it and I can see a woman in the middle seats holding a bag of McDonald's food for her. So I finish filling up and decide to pull over and do some paperwork while watching the van to see what happens. After about 10 minutes out she jumps, all smiles and laughing and clowning around but when the door closes she stops laughing and starts looking sad again. The driver winds down her window and says, "Goodbye Erica, I'll pick you up around 5"

 

[R5]

I'm wondering how many people reacted well, I mean for a morning's work, that's not a lot of people.

 

[Danoff]

Reminds me of a story. In Windsor we have "homeless" people that hang out near intersections, standing in the median where the left turn lanes are, usually holding up a cardboard sign saying, "Hungry" or "Need work" or something along those lines. This winter there was a young, fairly attractive women that used to hang out in on particularly busy intersection. I saw here many times, always looking sad and depressed, and freezing at the same time. Never smiled. But it didn't look "right". She had on a decent quality jacket and jeans and boots, not great, but in the kind of condition you wouldn't expect from someone homeless.

So one day I pull into the gas station on that corner and as I'm filling up I see a brand new Chrysler minivan pull up and she comes over and hops into it and I can see a woman in the middle seats holding a bag of McDonald's food for her. So I finish filling up and decide to pull over and do some paperwork while watching the van to see what happens. After about 10 minutes out she jumps, all smiles and laughing and clowning around but when the door closes she stops laughing and starts looking sad again. The driver winds down her window and says, "Goodbye Erica, I'll pick you up around 5"

...and that's all of them. Every single one.

 

[KSaiyu]

Human psychology when it comes to money is very weird. If someone gives you $5 out of the blue, you don't think of it as yours for a while. If you lost $5 randomly an hour later, you'd think to yourself "easy come easy go". If you lost $5 a week later it would feel like you lost $5. So if you give a dude a pizza he's not thinking of it has really his yet. If someone else wants to get some, he's thinking, "well I still gained half a pizza, so sure". If he held on to that pizza for a few days (in his homeless refrigerator that he doesn't have), he'd feel like it was his and be less likely to part with it.

This also happens for unrelated items. I've had an unexpected $500 expense show up that upset me, and my wife gotten an unexpected bonus of $1000 around the same time. I was still ultimately unhappy with the $500 expense... even though I was net positive between the two events. Furthermore, I was more unhappy with the loss than I was for a gain that was twice as much. How stupid is that?

It's a psychological fact that people are more concerned about loss than gain when it comes to money. This is especially documented in poker and causes people to make poor statistical decisions. It occurs in all aspects of life. Gambling, many times, is designed to take advantage of human emotional decisions that get in the way of good statistical decisions.

So let's say a guy walking down the street has a net worth of $500k. A bum offers him $5. He thinks "Is it worth $5 to interact with this guy? To be seen taking $5 from this guy? To deprive this guy of his $5? To deprive whoever else this guy was going to give $5? No. I have plenty of money. I don't want YOUR $5."

Same guy is asked for $5. He thinks "Do I owe you $5? Do I want to bestow my property onto you? Do I like you as a person? Do I want to help you? Do I think you deserve to be helped? What are you going to do with this money? Will giving this money prevent future interactions with you? No. I don't want to give you MY money".

Now to someone who has significantly more than $5, the decision of whether to accept $5 is not in actuality any different than the decision of whether to give $5 from a financial standpoint. But the psychology behind it is totally different. Furthermore, the signal it sends is totally different.

Giving someone $5 incentivizes them to come back and ask again. You're effectively paying them for the service of asking you for money. You've hired them to perform the job of begging. Now, taking $5 from someone doesn't obviously incentivize them to come back again, but for whatever reason, they want you to take it.

If you don't want to be talked to by a bum on the street, the only way to be sure to not incentivize them to be there next time is to not give them what they want. That includes not giving them money they ask for, and not taking anything from them that they want to give.

Also, if you don't trust them, the only course of action is to not do anything they ask for.

Now I'll watch the video.

Edit:

Interesting. The angry emotional reaction is probably a lack of self-confidence. The notion that a homeless person could just look at you and think you need help implies that there's something wrong with the way you appear.

Interesting linking to current politics in Britain at the moment with this idea:

...This is human. Social psychologists such as Robert Cialdini have extensively documented the ways in which we feel losses more deeply than gains. Heartfelt proofs of Cialdini’s thesis flooded my inbox in 2013, when the government decided to remove child benefit from households where one parent was earning more than £50,000 a year. Many high earners were furious. A Church of England vicar wrote to me complaining that his daughter, who had five children, could not possibly manage without it. It didn’t seem to occur to him that she could have chosen to have fewer babies. Or that it was not fair for a household earning at least twice the national average income to expect other taxpayers to chip in.

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/comment/columns/CamillaCavendish/article1548300.ece

 

[Johnnypenso]

...and that's all of them. Every single one.

Wow, Denver must be a crazy place to live

 

[Zenith]

Wow that is fake.

 

[mustafur]

I don't think it's fake.

But likely cherry picked on responses.

Either way how would you react to someone trying to give you money who looks like they need it more.

It's a very stupid experiment tbh.