I'm running a global social experiment – let's see what happens | Hacker News Reader

I'm running a global social experiment – let's see what happens

5 pointsscopiPL8 comments

I’ve always been curious about how generosity and impulse work in the online world. So, I decided to launch a simple social experiment:

What happens if I give people the opportunity to send any amount of money to a stranger, with no reason, no charity, no rewards – just to see if they would?

There’s no goal, no campaign, no deadline – it’s purely a curiosity test. Some might send 1 cent, some might ignore it completely. If someone does send something, they can suggest a use for it, and I’ll document it anonymously.

I’m interested in human behavior, online generosity, and how people interact with randomness. This is less about money and more about psychology and social dynamics.

Would love to hear thoughts on this:

Have there been similar experiments in the past? What do you think the outcome will be? How would you design this differently? If anyone’s curious, the link is here: https://sites.google.com/view/letsseewhathappens/strona-główna

Let’s see what happens.

I do the whole random charity thing but I need the feedback loop. Like I would give a game to a homeless dude on reddit saying they were homeless but just want a game on their phone that they can't afford. Because it's a trivial thing. I know I'm not getting cheated. Maybe he doesn't buy a game but instead spends it on a week of bread. That's fine too.

Giving an anon stranger an anon amount of money for "charity" triggers "anti-scam" instincts. It's not about losing the money. It's about encouraging bad behavior in society.

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/feb/07/liverpool-ma...

I think your best bet is to organize it "secret santa" style in an open format where people won't necessarily suspect that everyone but them is a paid actor.

There must have been studies on this. Putting money into the mix is a bad idea IMO.

It's more an experiment whether people will trust the rando running this.

Also, if you want to try this make sure of the legality of your "experiment" because inevitably someone will snitch on you.

Is there a way to remove the author trust factor? I suppose you'd have to pay in crypto to keep it anonymous, and this app would give you a random QR for a strangers wallet. How can you confirm that it's not the authors wallet, or an alt. Seems tricky.

That said, a donor could do the same thing by dropping cash in an area with high pedestrian traffic, and walking away without looking back. That said, those interested in the data collection aspect would be disappointed by that method.

I don't think paying in crypto increases trust for the regular Joe, maybe Alice and Bob will be more likely to join. This would select a very narrow crowd and skew your results massively.

How do I sign up to be a stranger?

bo ci jeszcze zaufam ziom

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