We Are Strange Animals
By W. Owen Thornton

When it comes to encouraging human kindness it turns out that the way to a person's kindness MAY be through their stomach ... er nose?  Which is a fancy way of saying if you want someone to be kind: give them a warm cookie.  Now listen.  We have to have pure motives when it comes to kindness.  Manipulating people in a bad way so that you "get them to do something you want them to do that they may not otherwise do" isn't what I'm talking about!  But ... nudging them to be kind for their own sake and for the betterment of the world overall? Well ...

You know the old adage that the way to a person's heart is through their stomach.  Well this is apparently true ... with a minor adaptation.  Much of what makes food enjoyable is related to the rich smells that accompany food.  So it appears to be true that rich food smells, according to a research experiment done by Isen and Levin in 1972, make people kinder ... at least for a short while.  People who received a warm cookie did seem to be kinder to others than those who did not receive a warm cookie and who were being tested to perform the same act of kindness.  Isen and Levin called the phenomenon, appropriately, "the warm glow of success."

Now I don't know about you, but in my neck of the woods "malls" have popcorn stores that just ooze of the wonderful smell of popcorn ... when they are actively making more product that is.  So here's the test.  It would be interesting to note the following.  If there was a conspirator of a test who dropped some papers nearby one of these popcorn stores while the popcorn smell was in the air, would we find that more people helped the paper-dropper with the smell in the air than say, further down the mall where there was no chance of that smell?  The answer would suggest that more people WOULD be kind to the paper-dropper with the sensational smell of popcorn in the air.

Now you could try muffin shops, or even burger joints when the grill is kicking out the nice smell.  It seems that we would still be kinder than if there were no rich smells in the air.  Now, I wonder if you operate a store that sells fresh-cooked product in any way ... if you encourage people to buy more often or more at a time, simply because of the smell that is in the air?

In Other Strange Kindness News

The "warm glow of success" impacting human kindness aside, there is another factor we have to watch out for: this is the kind of effect that will prevent us from practicing human kindness.  When we're in crowds, we're bad actors.

Many experiments demonstrate that we'll act better alone than in a crowd.  In a room where smoke starts to filter in, individuals seek help far more quickly than those sitting in a room where a conspirator doesn't seem to notice the smoke at all.  Now isn't that nutty!  Apparently we'd rather burn to death in a fire than look to be a nervous Nelly and shout fire ... especially when the other person in the room isn't reacting to it.  Now I realize this isn't a kindness example, but it could well be.  If we're in a room with others and someone starts to have a seizure and the confederates of the experiment don’t move to help then it is less likely we'll move in to help.