Can you depend on the kindness of strangers?

Question

Can you depend on the kindness of strangers?

Answer 1

depends. they could always be pretending to be nice. or they are nice. :S

Answer 2

I wouldnt bank on it,

Answer 3

No, not really. But from the first second u c the stranger you  can tell weather they are friendly or suspicious

Answer 4

Unsure on that one. My mother always told me "Never talk to strangers!" so how could we ever meet people, or more to the point of this question...depend on them!!

Answer 5

at times when you most need it, yes!

Answer 6

Maybe.

Strangers can rely on the kindness of me :) Friends can too ;)

Answer 7

no

Answer 8

i don't think you can depend on it, not all the time at least but usually when you most need it a stranger will help you out.

Answer 9

It depends on what it's about.

Money = No

Food = No

But I've npticed that if you get run over or have an accident then they try and help in every way possible, which I think is kinda strange, they don't help you when you need spare money or food but they are going to help you when your hurt.

My what a strange world we live in.

Answer 10

I do... but you have to be evil(like me) for it to get you anywhere.

Answer 11

I cannot depend upon the kindness of anyone but my wife and children. People, (strangers, relatives, friends, and in-laws) always want something in return. They try to make you feel obligated to them if they do anything for you.

Answer 12

It depends. On a gabunch of things.

I read a really cool book called Compassionate Beast, which was on the subject of altruism. It included a really interesting and striking story.

A sociologist who had done a lot of studies on the factors that make "helping a straneger" more and less likely was in a car accident one day. He and his friend (the driver) were hurt.

But when the light for the lane next to them turned green, the cars went on their way. He realized "This is like all these studies! People going on about their business without helping. So, what can I do here to get us some assistance? You've actually STUDIED this stuff, man!"

He got out of the car and approached the line of cars waiting at the again-red light.

He pointed at the driver of the first car and said "Go call for help, we need an ambulance" (pre-cell phone days). Then to the next driver "Pull over, we need help." and the same to the next.

The two cars pulled over and the people came to him, and he told them his friend needed more help than he did. Soon, an ambulance came.

So, what had happened? One thing that prevents strangers from leaping in to help is ambiguity -- uncertaintly that help is needed, or what, exactly is needed. By issuing specific instructions, he had removed the uncertainty and ambiguity.

Also, the more people there are, the less responsibility each individual feels. By making specific requests of specific people, he put the responsibility fully on those individuals.

So, if you're in a situation where you require the kindness of strangers, focus on particular individuals, and give specific instructions about exactly what help you need, and you're much more likely to get it.

Also, think of those stories you see on the news now and then: poor but deserving family whose house was burned down, or completely burglerized. The next day, the same news program reports on the donations pouring in. Many people do want to help, when they see a way to do so.

This topic is one that has been studied extensively; that's one thing the field of sociology is FOR.

And that study has yielded results -- some of which are of real, practical value.

Cool, isn't it?

Answer 13

Not depend on but it is nice when a stranger is kind.

Answer 14

Yes!  Teilhard de Chardin says"...far from drifting biologically, under the influence of exaggerated individualism, towards a state of growing granulation; far from turning to an escape from death by sideral expansion; or yet again again far from simply declining towards a catastrophe or senility-the human group is in fact turning, by planetary arrangement and convergence of all elemental terrestrial reflections, towards a second critical pole of reflection of a collective and higher order...."

Kindness towards other humans is part of our genetics.