Would you pass by a lost child?
A heartbreaking social experiment conducted in Tbilisi shows how differently people react to a lost girl, depending on what she is wearing.
(10 photos in total)
In an experiment arranged for UNICEF, a 6-year-old actress named Anano, playing the role of a lost girl, performed in different images: she was wearing neatly ironed clothes, then a shabby homeless outfit.
In the first part of the experiment, Anano stood alone on the street at the entrance to one of the restaurants. She was wearing clean clothes, and people were very enthusiastic to help her. They approached the girl and politely asked: "Do you live near here? Are you lost?"
After that, in the second part of the experiment, Anano went into the restaurant, also at first in neat clothes. People politely talked to her, offered help and were not against if the girl sat down with them at the same table.
One woman hugged the baby, and some man even tried to give her money for some reason.
But when Anano appeared in the restaurant as a homeless woman, the reaction of visitors changed dramatically. "Can you get her out of here?" one man said.
At best, visitors ignored the girl, and at worst, they showered contemptuous glances and shunned her.
As a result, the experiment had to be stopped because Anano was too upset with how people reacted to her in the image of a beggar. "Because my face was covered with soot and my clothes were dirty, they asked me to leave. It really upset me," she said.
According to a recently released UNICEF report, children from poor families are twice as likely to die before the age of 5, and twice as likely to suffer from malnutrition. Just imagine what life is like for these children who experience such treatment every day.
Keywords: Poverty | Georgia | Kindness | Stereotype | Tbilisi | Experiment