- Looking like this, oh gosh.
- It's alright, it could be worse.
You could be an ugly crier like me.
- It's pretty bad.
- Are you detail oriented or more of a
big picture kind of person?
When it comes to showing empathy and compassion,
one approach may be a lot more effect than the other.
Our brains are good at a lot of things
like recognizing faces and patterns.
But we're not so good at grasping big numbers.
So when something happens that effects
hundreds or thousands of people,
it's hard for us to see them as more than just numbers.
Ever notice in nearly every diaster movie,
even though the fate of the whole world is at stake,
they only focus on one select group of people.
See, film makers know this.
And just like they don't have the screen time
to show you everyone's story,
you don't have the emotional bandwidth to process it.
Research shows that we empathize more
with individual people in a group
than we do with the group as a whole.
But research was made to be repeated
so we devised our own experiment to test what makes us
feel for others.
Hi, I'm Julian. - [Man] Hi, I'm Liam.
- [Julian] We invited participants in
and asked them to watch a video
about homelessness.
They didn't know it
but we actually had them watch one of two videos.
One video had a lot of facts and figures.
The other video focused on
one individual homeless man named John.
- [John] This is where I sleep at night.
I lay my blankets down, my backpack.
I tie up my backpack onto my wheelchair
so they can't steal them anymore.
I try not to come here before dark
'cause I don't like pissing these people off
'cause they're really nice.
I know everybody on the streets.
I don't bother nobody.
I try to stay on this side of the line.
I killed over 70 confirmed kills as a sniper.
I'm trying to atone to the Lord right now for it.
I know he forgives me.
- [Julian] After watching the video,
we asked them a few questions about it.
So, what did you think of the video?
Did it evoke anything in particular?
- The numbers themselves grabbed at me
but then it was what those numbers represented
that grabbed at me more.
- You know, in this day in age,
when you're bombarded with number and stats
it quickly becomes overwhelming.
- You don't have the time
that I think you need to really focus.
We need to see imagery
because you see someone and you think,
I could be that person.
- Being able to really imagine yourself
and put yourself in someone else's place that like,
a lot of people that judge homeless people
but they don't actually imagine what it would be like
to have no one and sleep on the street
and like-
be ignored by everyone and judged like that.
- The story-
if you're paying attention, it gets inside of you
and you realize the humanity that's there.
- And then told them they were done.
We compensated them for their time in cash
and showed them the door.
- Thank you.
- [Julian] But the final part of the experiment
was actually outside.
Waiting for them was Christian,
an actor disguised as a homeless man.
Now we wait and see if the video had an impact.
Our quantifiable measurement for how much the videos
impacted them was how much they donated to Christian.
- [Man] Here you go boss.
- [Christian] Oh dude, thank you.
- [Man] Yeah, have a nice day.
- [Christian] I appreciate that.
You have a good day too.
Wow man, thank you.
- [Man] Have a good one.
- [Christian] I will, thank you.
- [Woman] Have you eaten?
- [Christian] I haven't yet, I was going to-
- [Woman] Do you want to have a like-
- [Christian] $1.25 will pay for a taco.
- [Woman] Alright, well you know what,
get 10 tacos.
- [Christian] Ah, that is so incredibly sweet of you.
- [Woman] Enjoy.
- [Christian] Thank you so much.
- [Woman] Have a good day.
- On average, people who watched the statistical video
donated $2.80. Not bad.
It means that thinking about the larger problem
did have an effect.
However, people who watched our video about John
donated on average $4.
Their larger donations meant that
they were more moved to action
when they connected with an individual in need.
Don't worry though, Christian gave it all back.
- I think seeing a personal story,
seeing it through someone's eyes like,
what's been going on in their lives,
it just makes you feel so much more.
Because they're, again, it just turns them into a person
as opposed to a number.
- Helping the homeless is an important cause.
But the lesson here can be applied to so much more.
Remember, when you start to learn about problems
that effect hundreds or thousands
or hundreds of thousands of people,
there are individuals hidden in those numbers.
And when you start to see them as people,
you start to feel for them more.
♪ Soul pancake ♪