# A revealing reverse psychology experiment: Feel free to post reactions/discuss here



## Incognito Detective (Jun 14, 2015)




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## aendern (Dec 28, 2013)

You know I actually find their reactions kind of shocking.

The people who resort to swearing, "fuck off!" "Is this some kind of joke? Fuck you."

Idk that just strikes me as insanely prideful and despicable.


I mean, I completely 500% understand their annoyance with the situation, but I don't see how that in any way even 1% justifies their rudeness.


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## Ixim (Jun 19, 2013)

Voluntatis said:


>


Man, I got so pissed from some of those! I swear it, if they came like that to me, some of them wouldn't have lived. Especially the C-class moron. First I'd wreck his useless car, then kill the useless prick. So, let's see his black C class card save him from that!

Man, people are swines and deserve nothing but contempt.


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## SilverFalcon (Dec 18, 2014)

I think I have seen a thread with this video already.


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## Incognito Detective (Jun 14, 2015)

SilverFalcon said:


> I think I have seen a thread with this video already.


Was the thread based around the video or was it a related or tangential post from another user within the thread? I did a quick search before submitting the thread and nothing with homelessness even came up in any of the thread topics, but considering how personality cafe prioritizes search string results I may have erred.


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## Erbse (Oct 15, 2010)

I love the last one.

Just too funny to be made up.


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## SilverFalcon (Dec 18, 2014)

It was based around the same video and the thread focused on the reactions of the people in it, might be a month back or so. But I don't blame you, sometime it's hard to search stuff. It's just that I remembered it.


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## Mirkwood (Jul 16, 2014)

Saw that just yesterday. It is pretty damn awful how some respond, tho im not entirely sure what to think of it.
As with many of these social experiments or pranks.. For example when a guy asks nicely if they can help with putting sunscreen on their back and they politely say yes, but then they fall into a hole dug in the sand. (where they actually could twist or break something if they had some medical condition)
It can be crazy funny.. tho also sometimes pretty horrible, and I get why the "It´s just a prank" dont always work out. It can sometimes be akin to when a bully is doing deliberate prolonged terror while saying "its just for fun, why are you getting worked up".

Say... If it was not supposebly rich people he was asking, but just any stranger would the outcome then not almost be the same?.
It is a pretty strange situation. 
1. When being offered money instead of giving you will perhaps be confused. 
2. If you take the money you may feel bad, BUT ALSO, if you refuse to take his money then you are sorta denying him, that he wants to give you, and you may feel bad again.

But yeah, people could just say.. "Keep it", "Thanks". Or "No thanks, have a little extra" as done also.


There are also the videos where a guy stands infront of a sports car to pickup girls, but then when they say yes, he points to an ordinary car behind the sports car.
Now he did actually cheat, and they need not nessarily have been interested in the sports car.
Tho, it does reveal something to an degree.. If they liked the guy they could had seen it as a funny or good pickup strategy, and say "This guy got a good humours style".



But it is nasty, it reminds me of a scene from the documentary "Two raging granies" where this guy approaches them and threaten their lives + more, for having hijacked the stage at an fundraiser to raise some concern, they were already being escorted out.


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## Inveniet (Aug 21, 2009)

If anything this just proves how insecure most people are.
Whatever persona they try to project outward is really fragile.
When put under threat like this it is no wonder that they lash out.
Of course the guy in the video is having a field day getting sympathy 
from observers that would act pretty much identical.


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## Angelic Gardevoir (Oct 7, 2010)

I'm surprised. I would have thought most people would have been like the woman who told him to buy breakfast. I know I wouldn't have taken the money and I would have given at least a few bucks to the guy.


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## ninjahitsawall (Feb 1, 2013)

"Is it acceptable because one individual is helping the other, or because one individual is better than the other, so it's okay to help." I suspect it's the latter. Therefore only makes sense they'd refuse out of pride. However I'm surprised how angry some of that got. 

It frustrates me how many people think they're being kind, helpful, giving etc. and it's motivated by ego. I actually have a mental block around helping someone solely on the basis of a demographic. 

This all reminds me of this class I took in college (a biology class, but was really more like philosophy/psych/bio combined), our professor said if you pay a stranger to give you a ride (e.g. a taxi), that's appropriate. If you say you'll pay your friend to give you a ride, your friend will be insulted because it suggests you don't see a friendship there, or at least not a valuable one.


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## BlackDog (Jan 6, 2012)

C-Class, bro!

I would be really uncomfortable taking money from a homeless person, to be honest. Not because I'm better than them but because I would think they might need it more than me. That being said, sometimes the most important thing you can do for someone is letting them do something for you. Rejecting a kind gesture can more damaging than just accepting it, even if they really can't afford it.


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## aendern (Dec 28, 2013)

Angelic Gardevoir said:


> I'm surprised. I would have thought most people would have been like the woman who told him to buy breakfast. I know I wouldn't have taken the money and I would have given at least a few bucks to the guy.


Really? 

I would have walked past, pretending not to hear or see him.

That's what I do with all homeless people.



ninjahitsawall said:


> "Is it acceptable because one individual is helping the other, or because one individual is better than the other, so it's okay to help." I suspect it's the latter. Therefore only makes sense they'd refuse out of pride. However I'm surprised how angry some of that got.
> 
> It frustrates me how many people think they're being kind, helpful, giving etc. and it's motivated by ego. I actually have a mental block around helping someone solely on the basis of a demographic.
> 
> This all reminds me of this class I took in college (a biology class, but was really more like philosophy/psych/bio combined), our professor said if you pay a stranger to give you a ride (e.g. a taxi), that's appropriate. If you say you'll pay your friend to give you a ride, your friend will be insulted because it suggests you don't see a friendship there, or at least not a valuable one.


That's so funny that you say that, because in my culture it's unacceptable to let your friend give you a ride without paying a least partly for the gas. It's just proper manners.

I mean, if gas were $0.05 a gallon, I would understand the oddness of offering to pay.

But it ain't. So far from it.


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## Angelic Gardevoir (Oct 7, 2010)

emberfly said:


> Really?
> 
> I would have walked past, pretending not to hear or see him.
> 
> That's what I do with all homeless people.


I meant if they chose to interact at all or noticed that he was trying to give them money, of course.


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## TTIOTBSAL (May 26, 2014)

The last one is world-class. 

I take nothing from someone I don't know. 
I wouldn't take from someone I think has less than I do - not that I think is less. It would feel wrong.


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## ninjahitsawall (Feb 1, 2013)

emberfly said:


> Really?
> 
> I would have walked past, pretending not to hear or see him.
> 
> ...


Hmm. Yeah I'm familiar with paying for gas being a thing. Now that you mention it I wonder what the professor meant. Maybe he was referring specifically to paying for the ride itself and not directly saying "here's money for gas"? Because then it's like you're paying them for their time and effort, which is somewhat distancing, especially if they initiated the offer. A bit like how prostitution works vs. a romantic relationship.


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## Gossip Goat (Nov 19, 2013)

Yikes that last guy was really out of line. 

If that would have happened to me I would have known right off the bat something weird was going on and would think of it as insincere/false and that would sort of annoy me. 

If something like that were to happen to me in real life, where the person isn't linked to some kind of experiment, I would still feel weird. Putting myself in that exact situation but removing the fact that it was staged I would not accept the money. If I were sitting alone in like university outside of class and a stranger comes up to me and says "Hello, you look lonely mind if I sit with you?" I wouldn't be rude but I'd feel weird, cause I'd feel as if they're taking pity on me plus I don't think it would be comforting to me and unless they're friendly and don't just keep me physical company it would come across as an ego boast disguised as an act of kindness. If it happened inside a classroom setting I think it would be different for me because in my mind its a valid excuse and we share something in common. (I know this has no relation to the video but I'm trying to explain why I think some "random" acts of kindness are weird). But that's not to say that kindness can only be given in situations where both parties share something in common. 

Everyone who knows me knows I feel sort of indebted to people, even friends & family, if they buy me food or presents I sort of feel as if I have to do something for them or repay them.

The people in the video reacted harsh definitely, but I think it was due to just how unusual the situation is and how some people act hostile to situations they don't know (keeping in mind that the behaviors the last guy and the guys who swore and flipped him off were unacceptable). It definitely could have something to do with class and how they feel insulted that someone who is poorer than them is helping them. I think it also has to do with how it came off as staged. Also the people who were walking really weren't asking for help of any kind or in need of some, so insisting that you really SHOULD take this money because "giving makes you richer" is very weird and I would be weirded out even if the "gift" weren't money.

IDK, what I wrote is probably a mess and will come across as something it was never intended as.


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## ninjahitsawall (Feb 1, 2013)

Gossip Goat said:


> Yikes that last guy was really out of line.
> 
> If that would have happened to me I would have known right off the bat something weird was going on and would think of it as insincere/false and that would sort of annoy me.
> 
> ...


I was thinking, it would depend on whether it has to do with being homeless or randomly being offered money. I would find it weird either way but I wonder if the reactions would've been less hostile (although still seen as strange) if he was just a random stranger.

On a related note, what are your thoughts on "free hugs"? I agree with what you said about random acts of kindness and I always thought it was a strange concept.


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## Gossip Goat (Nov 19, 2013)

ninjahitsawall said:


> I was thinking, it would depend on whether it has to do with being homeless or randomly being offered money. I would find it weird either way but I wonder if the reactions would've been less hostile (although still seen as strange) if he was just a random stranger.
> 
> On a related note, what are your thoughts on "free hugs"? I agree with what you said about random acts of kindness and I always thought it was a strange concept.


Free hugs are sort of the same to me, I'd feel weird if a stranger came offering a free hug, especially in a public setting because to me it would feel like it's sort of for show and therefor ingenuine which would rub me the wrong way. Hugs from strangers would be meaningless, hugs from someone you know aren't. Well at least that's my opinion. I'd prefer to receive hugs from people I know and care for.

But... 

There was one time during a competition where I wasn't expecting to place and I did and I was so shocked I started to cry on the stage and this random girl hugged me but the difference there (at least in my head) is that she said "I know how you feel, it happened to me last year" and I did not perceive it as false or for show because some kind of rapport was established. It also didn't come off as you look like you NEED a hug COME HERE or A HUG WOULD LOOK GOOD RIGHT ABOUT NOW


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## WhyShouldEye (Jun 12, 2015)

WHAT IN THE ACTUAL FUCK!

I'm 25 seconds in and I just have to stop right here. What kind of heartless human being says what that first guy said?

Okay, after watching, now for commentary. The differing reactions make me wonder where the difference lies. Is this a nature or nurture issue? Is it a societal problem or otherwise? It's a really interesting video; thanks for sharing.

Also, that last guy was as much of a prick as the first. I love that there were a couple of people that gave back, though.


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## Angelic Gardevoir (Oct 7, 2010)

Pressed Flowers said:


> I did not mean that as a personal insult in any way... I just... I mean, it's known that I'm a traumatized person. I'm a bit too in tuned to the reality of human hatred and apathy. Sometimes I forget that people aren't as familiar with it.


Oh no, you didn't insult me! I was just commenting, that's all. Also, I wasn't aware that you have suffered trauma. Don't feel bad about what you said.


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## Son of Mercury (Aug 12, 2014)

BenevolentBitterBleeding said:


> * *
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Because you are not making any points related to the actual experiment. Not once have you weighed in on the implications of the experiment. You have done nothing but defend condescension in this thread, and you have distorted the reality of the situation in an attempt to get people to agree with you, making you feel less guilty about expressing similar behavior shown in this video. Everyone in here has commented on what they would have done, and what this experiment reveals about society. You, sir were the only one in here downplaying obvious condescension, inflating a brief loss of composure and tacking on contradiction to Focusey's character in attempt to make less, the disgusting response of that last man.


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## Sangmu (Feb 18, 2014)

There's some disturbing people out there. I don't feel negatively toward these people though because I know they are not happy people.

The worst reactions came from men and, just in my personal experience, I find that men are more worried about their socioeconomic than women. Not that women aren't status conscious, they're just less _worried _about it. And here's why...

Men have status anxiety because a lot of their reproductive worth depends on being self-sufficient. When you insinuate that he's not earning, you're hitting a nerve. Doesn't excuse their behavior but it is why they had an immediate negative reaction.


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## Lord Bullingdon (Aug 9, 2014)

Some reactions--

- I've seen and lived amongst the dark underbelly of mankind, and it still kind of blew me away how quickly some people resort to hostility in this video. Wow, people are even more of jerks than I thought--this coming from someone who has been abandoned, assaulted, stolen from, cheated, and neglected.

- Hostility aside, the video was edited, and the viewers have no way of knowing how many less over-the-top responses ALSO happened on this day. What did the rest of people do? Were there others? They need to include this information rather than just put this stuff up and draw a conclusion about humans from it (they may have done, but I didn't investigate beyond watching the video).

- Does no one think it's great that almost no one pocketed that money, though? I kinda have an image of people saying,_ Hey great! Free money!_ and walking away without another thought. To me, humans are greedy, thieving, money-guzzling morons.

- He also says this, which I take issue with: *Is it acceptable because one individual is helping the other, or because one individual is better than the other, so it's okay to help*
This kinda sets you up for failure--either your refuse and you're "proud", or you accept the money and you're some kind of jerk (and probably have to give it back). That last guy, in particular, might have thought he was being singled out for racial reasons, rather than having a problem with pride. I personally don't like to ask others for money, and if a random stranger offered it, I'd definitely refuse. It's got little to do with pride, but a lot to do with the impropriety of accepting money from strangers.


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## Fish Launcher (Jan 14, 2013)

Actually, I find this pretty understandable. The people who rejected him, for the most part, were the most affluent in the video. They became that way out of the spirit of competition, the need to better others, the want to excel. When a homeless man offers them money, it creates a power imbalance. Imagine working your way up the greasy pole, after years of sweat and work and anxiety, only to be bested by a homeless man. The indignation, feeling that all your work was for naught, is understandable. Even if it is not very nice.


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## Sygma (Dec 19, 2014)

I always pay for a ride, in whatever form it can be : the parking, a drink when we re going somewhere, sometimes a ticket if we ll watch a movie, etc.

I would have taken the money from the dude, and walked back to him with 5 times the amount, then give it all to him. It indeed doesn't make anyone poor to give what you got


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## salt (Jun 22, 2015)

.


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## sogood (Aug 24, 2014)

Wow some people are TERRIBLE they felt insulted someone would offer money, but the two people who were so warm and the woman who offered for him to get breakfast were so warm and kind it was beautiful


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## xisnotx (Mar 20, 2014)

Aww that lady was so nice. 

I remember once I'm sitting eating sushi on a bench and a guy comes up to me and offers to buy me a meal. At first I thought he was trying to ask me for money, but he was actually trying to give me money. It made me feel bad, because it made me feel like I came off a low class in his eyes. But, I didn't insult the guy..I was more embarrassed. I just told him thanks but no thanks and he left me alone.

If I was walking and someone tried that, to be honest I'd probably just say I didn't need it..and if he was insistent I'd take it and give it to the next guy. To me, it'd be like cosmic justice..like the world paying me back. So, I pay it back.

Anyway, no, its apparent to me already that people are rather lost in this world. Its why I get so sad sometimes..but its hard to explain that to people, that the world makes me sad a lot. Like the shootings, the rapes..its why I dont really want to live in this country anymore. I just want lots of land..


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