This hidden camera footage will shock you.
An episode of “What Would You Do?” on ABC staged some actors to play lesbian couple, their children, and a waitress. The couple went inside with their children and the waitress played the role of antagonizing the family with common homophobic statements in a busy diner. The goal: to see who would speak up and stop the waitress from harassing the family any further.
The results will surprise you. In this experiment, according to the video, nearly half of the Texas bystanding residents stood up for the family (roughly 25 out of 53 people) whereas the same experiment was conducted in a New York restaurant where only a dozen people out of about a hundred stood up for the family then.
While the experiments aren’t really conducted in a way that you can scientifically compare the two places, it is still quite telling. And the results are amazing. There were two men in particular in the video that just made me want to bawl my eyes out at how wonderful they are.
Do these results shock you at all? What do you think of the video or the experiment?
This makes me so very happy. God bless that young man.
I wonder how this experiment would fare, in Texas and NYC again, with a couple of gay guys with children. I bet less people would defend them, because there is no expectation of defending men, from anything. So those that do do it out of something that is personal (own sense of justice), rather than a cultural notion of protecting some people. Worldwide, laws condemning homosexuality often do so in the context of punishing only gay men, or gay men way more (ie prison vs death). It probably does have to do in part with lawmakers in those countries being… Read more »
If you watch the whole video, they do it with men as well. The results were similar.
Never been to Texas or New York, but this video and the comments following it are a credit to the American people – spot on. Having worked in London for several years (and as a long distance commuter) I can vouch for the ‘New York invisibility effect’ – which is totally prevalent in London. If someone says ‘Good Morning’ to you in on the Tube in London , the thought that most people have is “OMG he might have a gun !” – and if someone sat down next to you with no clothes and their body painted green, the… Read more »
I’m not from the US, but New York City has a reputation for people keeping to themselves, much like the centre of London. I suspect this has a big impact on the number of people who spoke out. Likewise, I think the number of people in both of the Cities would be affected by the fact that once a few people are involved, there’s no point in others joining in. I’d be interested to see how many would speak out if they were the only person nearby to be able to speak up and/or how many would speak up in… Read more »
Even though I am not personally affected, like the actress in the video, this made me sob and completely changed my image of Texas. I am rather appalled about this awful law, that was cited in the video. Seriously hard to believe that a restaurant can refuse to serve gay people. How very inhumane. But this example just shows that people can evolve in spite of the backward laws and regulations that exist in the place where they live. Really impressed by the Texans in this video. They’re so unlike their stereotype in Germany.
Being a nearly lifelong, but non-native Southerner, my take on this is that it has far less to do with one’s political/social leanings than it does with cultural expectations. In New York City (where I have spent extensive time), people tend to mind their own business to a fault. Interfering or interrupting in someone else’s doings is breaking a societal rule in NYC. It’s considered rude just to smile or make eye contact, much less conduct small talk, in NYC and indeed in much of the Northeast. In the South, it’s the opposite. You’re considered rude if you *don’t* smile,… Read more »
…something else I think is important to point out: in NYC it’s likely that a large percentage of the random diners they “tested” were tourists, not residents or regulars. I think that would have a significant impact on how they reacted to the situation. If I were in a city where I was already not at home (literally and figuratively), I don’t know how I’d feel about stepping into a situation while not on my home turf. I’d be a lot less likely to do it than if I were sitting in my favorite restaurant back home.
My take is that this has nothing to do with Liberal or Conservative, rather “Small Town” vs “Big City”
nailed it.