Socio-economic factors affect whether we help strangers or not, study finds

The urban myth that those in big cities are less likely to help strangers could be down to socio-economic factors, new research shows.

According to a study conducted by University College London (UCL), the research measured different neighbourhoods in 12 cities and 12 towns in the UK.

There were 1,367 real-life scenarios created where researchers tracked if people returned a dropped item, posted a lost letter or stopped cars for others to cross the road.

Out of these instances, 47% of them were met with help from the public.

The UCL study found that the main factor that influenced these figures was neighbourhood wealth, instead of the perceived ideas that smaller cities and towns are more helpful due to their smaller populations.

The report found that, in fact, help was more common in wealthier areas. This is not to suggest that people in poorer neighbourhoods are unhelpful.

Nichola Raihani, an author of the study and a professor at UCL, warned that it is still uncertain whether it was deprivation or contextual factors that influence if people are willing to help strangers.

Raihani references literature on the subject that suggests people within socio-economic constraints are perhaps more likely to invest higher amounts of assistance in tighter social networks than outside these networks.