If you have ever taken a crowded subway during rush hour, you know the unspoken rules. Keep your head down, put your headphones in, and slip into mental autopilot.

This collective trance is exactly what a team of psychologists in Italy wanted to disrupt.

In a fascinating field study published in the journal npj Mental Health Research in November 2025, researchers from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan decided to test human altruism in public spaces. The team, led by clinical psychology professor Francesco Pagnini, wanted to see if a bizarre and unexpected disruption could jolt commuters out of their daily........

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