Founded in 2014, STHLM Panda told The Local that their productions are an attempt to “open up the community and get people to see one another more”. The latest isn't likely to leave many viewers indifferent.
The premise is simple. An elderly man named Per is pulling a heavy suitcase through a Stockholm metro station when he reaches some stairs. The 78-year-old begins to struggle when attempting to carry his luggage up the steps. With a large number of commuters passing by, how many will stop to offer him some help?
The experiment was inspired by a real life incident that STHLM Panda founder Olle Öberg witnessed.
“I saw this happen at the same staircase at Fridhemsplan station,” he explained to The Local. “Nobody intervened to help the man, who told me he had struggled for five minutes without any assistance.”
“Our test shows that as humans we sometimes forget to care about one another, but it also shows there are people we should be inspired by,” Öberg added. “We hope that everyone who spreads the clip can begin to see one another and we can get a better society.”
So far spreading the clip isn't proving to be an issue. It appears to have struck a nerve, receiving almost 90,000 views on Youtube since it was uploaded on June 2nd.
Social experiments are a growing phenomenon in Sweden. In March a Saudi Arabian student in Stockholm decided to conduct one experiment investigating islamophobia in the Nordic country, and the resulting video has earned over 370,000 views.
A month earlier another experiment filmed in Stockholm’s Old Town tested how passersby would react to a random act of violence against an innocent bystander. In reality, the bystander was an actor, and the act was staged. The video went viral and has chalked up over three million views on Youtube.
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