A girl, a boy, a dog, and a cat all need help.....Who do you think gets helped first?

[davidn3600]

It's the middle of the day in Manhattan's bustling Washington Square Park.

At different points in the landmark thoroughfare, DailyMail.com placed two children - a six-year-old boy and girl - as well as a dog and a cat, as part of a social experiment.

All four were being monitored by carers and secretly filmed. So who do you think was the first to be 'rescued' by a stranger in the least amount of time alone?

The results of the test were both shocking and, to some degree, expected.

Interestingly, each person to stop and try and help was female.

Most surprising, however, was that six-year-old boy Sam did not catch the attention of one passer-by, even as he sat with his head in his hands for a long 45 minutes.

At one point Sam even started saying: 'Help me. Someone, help me.'

Conversely, our six-year-old girl subject, Carly, was tended to first, after just three minutes.

----

Coming in second was Charlie the pug, who is a rescue dog from the Sato Project.

Charlie was left alone and wandering with his leash attached for 4 minutes and 36 seconds when a woman stopped to check if he had an owner.

----

Our cat subject, Mrs Parberry, was left sitting in the middle of the park sidewalk in a cat kennel, to stop her from running away.

This may have prevented some from stopping, with an animal drawing more attention than a bag, however it took twice as long for someone to stop for the kitty as compared to the dog.

A woman did stop after 10 minutes and 17 seconds.

---

Sam, the six-year-old boy who took part in the experiment, was not approached once after 45 minutes.

While some might say little boys can appear threatening, Sam was sitting cross-legged on the curb looking confused. At one point he also began asking for assistance, but was ignored.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3749187/If-boy-girl-cat-dog-left-park-rescued-Social-experiment-shows-subject-people-responded-fastest-completely-ignored.html

Must be that "male privilege" we keep hearing so much about....

[rug]

1. I would go to the cat first.

[MFM008]

4. me 2

kitty

[hardluck]

5. Why?

[rug]

7. There's no list if you leave a park with a cat.

The dog can take care of himself.

[hollysmom]

28. incorrect - dogs can not take care of themselves. Cats are far better survivors

although being n a case would make that hard and being in a case would make it more reusable.
Personally, although if not distracted I probably would have helped the kids, but in the past I have talked to kids in very innocuous ways and got my head handed to me from parents
Once I was at the beach reading a book and looked up and saw a small child building a sand castle in front of me, I smiled at the child and the kids smiled back at me, the mother ran over and screamed I should leave their child alone. Another time at he beach I saw a small child near the breakers and asked loudly if their parent was there and the parent came over to me and told me to mind my own business they were watching the child - from a distance a distance that could have been too far away if a wave swept them out. SO approaching a child is laden with danger even for an old woman alone.

ETA that is a pretty big 6 year old boy. he looks older.

[rug]

31. At least on the beach you can tell if the parents have a gun.

[Raine]

12. Me too, cat/dog nt

[demmiblue]

2. Sounds very scientific.

Perhaps they should submit their findings.

Oh, wait... it was actually conducted by the Daily Mail.

[LWolf]

3. Sam's mom might not have been shocked, but I am.

I raised two boys. I've taught hundreds. I am not "threatened" by them, and neither do I consider them to be more capable of taking care of themselves than girls.

[NeoGreen]

6. would it be wrong to speculate...

...that may be Sam wasn't of apparent European decent and Carly was?

[LisaL]

9. Instead of speculating you can just take a look at his photo in the article.

He is white.

[NeoGreen]

15. sorry, i am on weak wifi at home, and...

...don't always click on links since they tend to load slow, relative to DU.

plus, no videos for me, i am deprived.

[yewberry]

8. Ha ha, almost sounds like you're asserting male privilege doesn't exist.

Ha ha.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

10. The boy didn't seem to be seated in a prominent location...

... compared to the girl standing near the tree.

That being said, I'm actually surprised that either child drew concern sooner than the animals considering the many "animals are better than people" kooks out there.

[TipTok]

18. Not all people....

Just lots of them...

[dsc]

23. actually there is a more than reasonable apprehension among many adults to approach children in a

park, especially if the adult is a single male. I have to say that I would likely try to find someone to assist me in helping the child and not help the child all by myself while I would help the animals all by myself. In this day and age, it is all to easy to be assumed to be a child molester in this scenario.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

24. Yeah, that's a good point.

I never wanted to become a teacher because I feared that I'd be accused of doing something with a child that never happened. I never volunteer in children organizations for the same reason -- sports, scouts, etc.

I still think that I would've asked the children if they needed help before trying to help the animals... assuming that I noticed all of them equally. The boy in that "study" seemed far removed from most of the action.

[Coventina]

11. I would approach a child asking for help, or injured or obviously in need.

Not obviously in need?

I'd be wary.

Approaching strange children is fraught with consequences in today's world.

All things being equal, I'd help the animals first - starting with the dog.

[oberliner]

13. The Daily Mail is a right-wing British tabloid

I don't understand why articles from that trash paper get posted here.

[Warren DeMontague]

17. I'm not sure I would take Manhattan as statistically indicative of general human behavior

statistically indicative of NYC resident behavior, perhaps.

[pnwmom]

19. I don't think this would pass muster as "research." But if you wanted to take it seriously,

you could ask why no men stopped to help at all.

[The2ndWheel]

20. Men don't want to be seen around kids

Especially any that aren't their own. If the kid is drowning, or there's a fire, ok. Just a kid hanging around? Crying? No, unless you're with your girlfriend, wife, sister, mother. Someone that doesn't make you look like the weird guy, or the guy making the kid cry, or anything like that.

[pnwmom]

21. No men stopped to help the dog or the cat, either. And I personally witnessed

a man stopping to help a lost child in the mall, so I know you are wrong. Some men would do that.

[The2ndWheel]

22. You're right, some men would

Most men want to help, because it's a person in need, and some women would help some random man if he needed it, but in general, it's not going to happen. Once outside my apartment building, there was a little girl crying. I'm white, the girl was Asian. My sister was with me at the time, and she was the one that went to see what was wrong. After everything got settled, we talked about how guys have it tough in that regard. Too much can go wrong.

If a kid comes up and asks me for help, ok. Much tougher to go up to a kid and offer help. For a man.

Dogs and cats. You never know if a dog will bite you. Cats can scratch. If there's a leash and and a cat kennel, you figure someone is on top of it. It's a sign of human ownership.

[GeorgeGist]

25. the Daily Mail does science.

Bwahahaha.

[kevink077]

27. Girl, dog, cat, then boy

Our society does not value males. Flame me if you want but it's the truth.

[True Dough]

29. Respond if you want...

[davidn3600]

33. Im sure that makes the 6 year old boy feel better

"Sorry kid, you dont get any help because all the presidents were male."

[True Dough]

34. So we can make the argument that the boy deserved more care and concern

but to proclaim that society doesn't value males, as a generalization, isn't going to wash with most people, including many males, like me. We all face adversity. Everyone in every demographic can point to statistics and incidents and give personal anecdotes of where we felt slighted or mistreated due to our gender or nationality or religious beliefs (or lack thereof), and on and on. That's not to say there aren't legitimate issues to tackle for particular groups, to make a "woe is me" statement isn't going to help solve any of them.

[Codeine]

30. That's the stupidest statement I've ever seen here,

and I'm a veteran of "Blow up the moon" and "I don't drink with you."

[librechik]

32. so--anecdote says what?

show me a real study to get outraged about.