REAL LIFE NEWS: BREAD BREEDS BROTHERHOOD
by Hazed
Who doesn’t love the smell of freshly baked bread? Walk past a bakery and you’re sure to feel better. And maybe hungrier.
Now research shows that it also makes you kinder.
Researchers from the University of Southern Brittany in France recruited eight volunteers to help with their study. They tasked them to stand outside either a bakery or a clothes shop. They then pretended to look for something in their bags, and in the process, “accidentally” dropped a glove, a handkerchief, or a packet of tissues.
Two researchers watched the action, and noted what happened. They found that passersby were more likely to alert the volunteers that they had dropped something if they were outside the bakery than outside the clothes shop.
The experiments were repeated about 400 times and the results showed that 77% of strangers stopped to help recover the lost item outside the bakery, but only 52% outside the clothes store.
One of the researchers said that the evidence “shows that, in general, spontaneous help is offered more in areas where pleasant ambient smells are spread. This experiment confirms the role of ambient food odors on altruism.”
I guess the moral of the story is that if you are prone to dropping your belongings, you should spend time hanging around outside bakeries!
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/02/the-smell-of-fresh-baked-_n_2058480.html
