Ella Scott
A mother is being applauded for her reaction after a man tried to ‘lure’ a child with candy during a ‘kidnapping’ social experiment.
If you either want your faith in humanity restored or totally decimated then there’s no better place to look than social experiment videos.
Most of these viral clips are used to explore the bystander effect, a social psychological theory that states individuals are less likely to offer to help victims when others are present, writes Simple Psychology.
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Sometimes these situations can see hungry civilians setting up shop next to a food truck, only to be ignored by customers.
Other times, good samaritans step in to deal with aggressive people in public settings, while others attempt to save children from dire consequences.
One content creator who regularly posts these fascinating situations on the platform is a user called Matthew Bandeira.
In one of his latest videos, he teamed up with influencer and podcaster Danielle Sylvester to gauge her reaction to a man speaking to a child in her vicinity.
In the clip, the unnamed guy is seen approaching a child on a park bench.
To engage the girl in conversation, the man asks her whether she ‘likes candy’.
“I have the best candy you’ve ever had,” he continues. “It’s a special candy for special kids. I’m going to give it to you right now.”
Sylvester - who is sitting on the other side of the bench with a friend - quickly jumps into the conversation, asking the little girl whether she is familiar with the man.
When the child shakes her head to say ‘No’, the mother requests that she cover her ears before launching into a scathing attack.
“I need you to back the f**k up now,” she says. “She don’t know you, you don’t know her, you need to back the f**k up out of here.”
Sylvester continues to shout at the man who quickly implores her to ‘relax’ before moving away from the kid.
Following the staged incident, the woman reveals in a piece-to-camera that she addressed the unnamed guy as such ‘because [she] is a mom’.
“I see this happening every day in the news and I’m so sorry. As a mom, I just can’t imagine if that was my kid. I’m sorry,” she continued while tearing up.
In the caption of the clip, Sylvester claimed that her own daughter had ‘set her up’ to get a genuine reaction out of her.
“Well!!! A reaction was had,” she added.
After sharing the social experiment with her 1.2 million Instagram followers, viewers have come out in droves to praise the podcaster for her quick reactions.
“From the innocent ‘I need you to cover your ears honey’ to the threat she made against him.. GOOD JOB. Made me cry thinking about my daughter,” typed one user.
A second said: “She handled it perfectly fine as a mom myself I would do the exact same thing if somebody else’s child was about to get abducted.”
Another person commented: “Them both turning their heads at the time time when he said ‘candy’ is soo funny to me.”
“That woman is a blessing to have among us but I hate these videos she didn't need that stress or some people with cameras playing games with her emotions,” someone else remarked.
A fifth wrote: “I would totally let her babysit my daughter.”