A Description of Dr. Robert Levine's Kindness Test

During the 1990s, Dr. Robert Levine and a group of researchers carried out a cultural study on different cities and its individuals and how they reacted when presented with an opportunity to exhibit kindness to strangers. Levine created multiple variables to test for kindness that individual’s exhibit towards strangers. Levine and his group had to eliminate some of the variables because of certain cultural norms that prohibited the efficiency of the test. Levine then tested random individuals in thirty six major cities across the globe. After much adversity due to different cultural norms, Levine and his group of researchers were able to scale the countries from 1 to 35, 1 being the most kind and 35 being the least kind. Levine concludes from the experiment that New Yorkers come in dead last, and Brazilians of Rio de Janeiro ranked 1st among kindness. Levine concluded that the cultural values of kindness were greater in countries that had low economic development and emphasized social harmony. After assessing Levin’s article, a deeper analysis on how cultural values correlate to economic development can be further investigated. The cultural value of simpatico or generosity seems to be more prevalent in cities that have lower economic development. This correlation may be due to the fact that generosity counteracts economic development. The more generous and communally minded citizens are, the less they are focused on individual financial gain.
The countries with higher GDP per capita had exhibited less generosity but more financial gain. Cultural values of financial gain include more self-centered individuals who strive for personal gain in the business place instead of communal gain. Cities that had a slower pace of life and less purchasing power had exhibited more kindness to strangers than the hustle and bustle cities with higher purchasing power. New Yorkers claim generosity to strangers is inherently not a cultural norm because of the rough