大象传媒

Today Ella Scotland Waters meets Jill and challenges her to think about kindness and to do something kind for a stranger. The responses are mixed. Some people are wary of strangers offering them gifts, sensing a possible ulterior motive. Others don't believe that doing a random act of kindness for a stranger is genuine because we often don't know what people actually need. So it sets Ella and Jill thinking about how to overcome some of the barriers to being kind, and how to be kind to people who are not deserving and in some cases being hostile and aggressive. It leads to some interesting discussion about the complexities of being kind.

And Ella sets out to track down a young man who stopped to offer her kindness when she was in need. She's heard he works on a local building site but can she find him?

Professor Bruce Hood of the University of Bristol's School of Psychological Science is on hand to guide us through the results of research that prove the benefits of kindness outweigh any obstacles.

Producer for 大象传媒 Audio Bristol: Maggie Ayre