To test whether people are willing to do the right thing German Police, with the assistance of a local media agency, set up a fake car crash that was graphic in its depiction of serious hurt caused to car occupants. They then sat back and watched to see how many people stopped to help.
The results are pretty dismal. Despite the law and despite Germany’s strong culture of morality only 10% of those who passed by stopped to assist what were people whose bloodied demeanor signaled that they, indeed, were in need of help. The Press Release about this (unfortunately in German) along with the video that shows how the stunt was staged show just how graphic the accident appeared to be which only makes people’s behavior appear all that more callous.
The obvious take away is that morality is hard to do when no one’s looking. So, apparently is being law abiding. The less obvious thing is that we live in a world where speed, complexity and uncertainty combine to challenge our decision making and make it more likely that we will do the wrong thing.
How do we deal with this? It would appear there is no real substitute for training ourselves to use our brains better. When untrained reflex action is likely to lead us down the wrong path the only other avenue left to us is to train ourselves and develop new reflexes.
https://thesnipermind.com/blog/can-the-law-make-us-moral.html
Their setup netted 10% takers, that's all we know.
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