(Fox8) Yousef Saleh Erakat says his biggest fear is getting kidnapped. He wanted to know how strangers would react if the unthinkable happened. Would they help him? Or would they ignore him?
With the help fouseyTube, Erakat created a social experiment. He ran to strangers and told them he had been kidnapped. The entire experiment was captured on hidden cameras.
It may be difficult to watch as Erakat runs up to strangers and yells that “some man in a jacket” attempted to put him in a vehicle.
The reactions of many strangers will restore your faith in humanity, however the reactions of others may leave cause for concern. One man shook the hands of the “kidnapper” and walked away.
“I would get home early from school and sit on my front lawn until my parents came home because I felt like someone was inside my house waiting for me,” Erakat wrote. “This video was a way for me to express that fear in an artistic way and also spread positive change as to why it is important to act when put into these types of situations.”
If you were in a similar situation, what would you? That’s the question Erakat wants everyone to ask themselves.