[00:00:00] When a person is in need, how does their social class affect how other people treat them? A field experiment with approximately 4500 people studied how signs of social class affect compassion toward those in need. In two major us cities, pedestrians saw a person wearing either high or low social class symbols asking for money to help the homeless. Researchers measured how much money people gave. Pedestrians gave nearly two and a half times more money to the person wearing high class symbols than to the ones wearing low class symbols. A follow up study with 504 participants were shown images of the same person wearing either high or low class symbols. The study looked at what caused compassionate responses.
[00:00:37] Higher class symbols made people think the person was more competent, trustworthy, similar to themselves, and more human than lower class symbols. These findings show that visible signs of social class affect how we judge others and decide to help those in need. Let's move beyond the limits of status symbols and work together to create a fairer society. By reducing biases, we can all benefit by increasing our awareness, encouraging empathy, and supporting social class symbols that are inclusive of everyone.
