What’s a Supercitizen?
Scattered among us are anonymous heroes quietly planting seeds of kindness and care everywhere they go. They seed joy, spark transformation, and create ripples of positivity throughout our communities.
Think of the neighbor who picks up random garbage that blows through, the kind soul who shares the bounty of their garden, the friendly knock at the door that’s accompanied by a welcome basket for the newest neighbors. These acts stem from pure generosity but they have a secret power.
They’re contagious.
Being on the receiving end or witnessing these actions changes us. Kindness isn’t linear. It’s not just the person you help that’s then moved to make a difference. Those who witness your act of kindness are also highly likely to want to make a difference as well. And there’s research to back that up.
Research Findings
Social scientists from UCLA’s Bedari Kindness Institute were studying hate and its antitdote. They knew kindness was critical but wondered if it was enough and could it scale.
What they found, in short, was yes.
In the study they conducted, 8,000 people participated in 15 experiments. Half watched a viral video titled Unsung Hero, which follows a young man as he goes through his daily routine, stopping often to help others. The other half watched a control video of a man performing impressive parkour stunts in a show of athleticism.
Participants received five $1 bills as payment for their time. At the end, researchers handed each a padded envelope and invited them to make a donation to UCLA Mattel Children’s Hospital. The researchers then turned away so people could anonymously choose how much money, if any, to put inside before sealing the packet.
People who viewed the Unsung Hero video gave 25% more to the charity than those who saw the athletic-stunt video.
That’s a pretty impressive ‘pay it forward’ result.
At its core that means that these small actions have the power to make our communities, our country, the world a kinder place. By engaging in our own acts of kindness, by beoming supercitizens, we create ripples far beyond what we could ever imagine.
“Unexpected kindness is the most powerful, least costly, and most underrated agent of human change.”
~ Bob Kerrey