People Help Each Other Every Couple of Minutes, Study Finds

Summary

A study published in Scientific Reports by researchers at UCLA and partner universities found that people signal a need for assistance once every two minutes and 17 seconds on average, with those small requests being fulfilled at a rate seven times higher than they are declined. The research analyzed more than 40 hours of video recordings of everyday interactions among over 350 participants in eight cultures spanning Aboriginal Australia, rural Ecuador, Ghana, Laos, Poland, Italy, Russia, and England.

The findings challenged prevailing narratives about individualism and social disconnection, demonstrating that low-cost cooperative behavior is not only universal but strikingly frequent and consistently successful across dramatically different societies. Researchers concluded the data points to a common cross-cultural foundation for prosocial behavior, with variation between communities appearing in the style of requests rather than the fundamental human tendency to ask for and provide help.