Walking in someone else's snow shoes
21.12.2011
Toby’s point of view
Christmas is the time for giving. But as anyone who has recently participated in a charity carol singing event will know, plenty of people are unmoved by a public display of festive good-cheer.
First, a little thought-experiment: think of the number of rosy-cheeked, Santa-hatted good Samaritans you have passed on your way home from work in the last fortnight, singing ‘Twelve Days of Christmas’ to the rattle of collection tins. Now count the number of times you coughed up a handful of shrapnel. Many of you will, I’m sure, have achieved a 100% giving record. But others will likely have lowered their eyes and trudged on past on at least one occasion.
There will probably be a number of reasons you did this. ‘I was in a hurry’ will no doubt feature prominently. ‘I didn’t have any change’ is an eminently reasonable excuse. ‘I can’t stand carols’ will be less common, but we all know at least one professed Christmas-hater.
Now, would you be more likely to give money if you had some experience of charity carol-singing? If you knew what it’s like to stand there, trying to look joyful as one bad-tempered commuter after another rushes past without so much as a glance?
I reckon you would. I know this because I added my decidedly dodgy voice to a small, intrepid band of carol singers at a south London tube station last week. As I screeched out my umpteenth rendition of Jingle Bells (which goes pretty weird around the third verse, by the way – ‘The horse was lean and lank / Misfortune seemed his lot’ – hmm!), it was hard not to feel downhearted at the number of people who went by without donating.
Since then, not only have I been giving change to every carol singing troupe I see, I feel obliged to do so. Now that I know what it’s like to make a public spectacle of myself for a good cause – only to be ignored – my propensity to give has increased dramatically.
To me, this shows the importance of really understanding other people’s experiences in encouraging positive behaviour. Seeing the world through someone else’s eyes is a powerful means of achieving change – whether it is bringing their insights to bear on project design, or just giving a few coppers to a carol singer.
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