A common ordeal such as a bushfire or a virus can bring people closer together and bring out the best in them. But sometimes the opposite happens. How kind are Australians in truth? The Red Cross has conducted a survey to find out.
The Australian Red Cross has looked at levels of kindness in the Australian community. After surveying just over 1,000 people aged over 18, they found nine out of ten people believe helping friends, family, workmates and other members in the community should be a daily occurrence.
The Red Cross's New South Wales director, Poppy Brown, says 95 per cent of those surveyed did at least one act of kindness towards others in the past year, including acts such as giving clothes, time or money.
The study also found three out of five people would like to do more to help out in the community.
"We know that there are a lots of smaller opportunities for people to get out there in the community.’’ said Mrs Brown. ‘’For instance in the Red Cross we have people making phone calls early in the morning to elderly people who live on their own. And we know that there a lot of people manning the barbecues at sporting events on the weekend, or even just having a cup of tea with your neighbour, check that people are ok, talk to people in your work space. It does not need to be a massive ask or a massive thing that you need to fit into your day."
This is the third kindness survey done by the Red Cross in the last four years.
The study suggests Australians are becoming more compassionate, with more people now saying they care about making their communities a better place than three years ago.
People over 40 are more likely to strongly agree that everyone should show more kindness on a regular basis compared to under 40s, but people under 40 are significantly more likely to get actively involved in a cause through advocacy and lobbying.
Professor Gary Bouma is the UNESCO Chair for inter-religious and Intercultural Dialogue Asia-Pacific. He says kindness and compassion are basic tenets of all the major religions, but he also says they are qualities and behaviours innate to humans.
"You don't have to have a religion to be compassionate, although religions provide excellent examples and stories and motivations to be compassionate. You can get there by simply attending to the needs of others. We've come as a society recently through huge drought, bushfires and now the coronavirus. That can bring out out of us compassion; it can also bring out nasty kind of selfishness, like hoarding of toilet paper and some other silly things. But basically we are caring and concerned."
When it comes to kind intentions, South Australians top that score at 93 per cent, agreeing with the statement 'the world would be a better place if we all did one kind thing a day''.
This includes helping friends, family, co-workers and others in the community.
Queensland, Victoria ((89%)) and Western Australia ((88%)) followed close behind South Australia.
Women have more compassionate attitudes and actions than men do across the board, with women significantly more likely than males to have committed certain acts of kindness in the past year at 84 per cent compared to 62 per cent for males.
