A common heuristic that has emerged in recent times is that poorer people tend to be more willing to help others than their wealthier peers. While it’s a heuristic that doesn’t have a great deal of evidence to back it up, it’s one that has nonetheless endured.
New research from the University of Western Australia set out to explore whether similar discrepancies emerged in regards to our education. Were more educated people more likely to help a stranger than their less educated peers?
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the research found that our socio-economic environment plays a major part in our willingness (and ability) to help other people.
“What we’ve found is that a person’s willingness to help a stranger depends on their socioeconomic environment,” the researchers say. “But what exactly is it about socioeconomic status that makes people go out of their way to help a stranger?”
The kindness of strangers
The research specifically set out to explore the relationship between various facets of socioeconomic status that don’t tend to receive a lot of attention, and subsequent acts of kindness.
This was done via an experiment whereby some 600 envelopes were dropped across 20 suburbs throughout the Australian city of Perth. The aim was to explore how many were picked up and delivered to their intended destination.
The results suggest that things such as crime and economic resources had very little bearing on the likelihood of the letter being delivered, but educational attainment and occupational status certainly did, with people scoring higher on both much more likely to engage in prosocial behavior.
“The precise reason why altruism flourishes in areas that are populated with highly educated individuals working in high-status jobs requires further investigation,” the authors concede. “But these results offer a fascinating glimpse into community attitudes and may also prove relevant for policy development and intervention.”
It’s perhaps not the most conclusive of findings, but does nonetheless provide both food for thought and some interesting avenues to explore in future research.
