“What Would You Do?” is an ABC TV show hosted by John Quinones that explores what choices ordinary people make when exposed to a situation designed to test their reactions
In this scenario, an actor plays the part of a muslim with a problem – his car has a flat tyre and he doesn’t know how to change the wheel.
The programmers are interested in seeing how many folk will offer to lend a hand. The answer is only 2 – watch vid
This young guy has a great attitude and should be rightly commended. However, a word of caution. Lacking proper control groups, this social experiment can not be taken as proof of widespread islamaphobia amongst the american public.
We would not expect women . . .to stop and help a man change a car tyre. All we have here is evidence that men rarely offer to help another man change a tyre. Changing a tyre is widely regarded as a ‘man skill’, Those men who refused to help the actor in this situation may have done so out of contempt for him as a man, and not because he was a muslim. At least two other control groups are needed before one can conclude what was being demonstrated here was islamaphobia – the ‘experiment’ needs to be repeated with a white actor and a non-muslim asian actor. Depending on the pattern of results, one would then be in a position to judge whether those who refused to help the muslim man did so because of his religion or his ethnicity
