In 1973 at Princeton Theological Seminary, students took part in an experiment which was ostensibly a study on religious education and vocations.  In one building, they completed a questionnaire, then they were instructed to go to another building to give either a talk on jobs, or a talk on the story of the Good Samaritan. The participants were told to hurry, but to different degrees. On the way to the second building, a confederate (actor who is part of the study) was hunched over in the alley, in plain sight, in clear need of help. This experiment was a test of people's willingness to help and how it is affected by situational factors.

First the researchers found that it mattered less whether the participants were going to talk about jobs or about the story of the Good Samaritan, although those going to talk on the subject of help did show a slightly greater willingness to stop and help. The "hurry variable" was however significantly correlated to the helping behaviour, that is, the more the participants were in a hurry, the less helping behaviour they demonstrated.  In fact, only 10% of those who were in the "high hurry" category offered aid to the suffering actor. Those in less of a hurry offered more help, as many as 63% of the subjects in the low hurry condition stopped to offer assistance.

Hurrying then significantly effected helpfulness, much more than personality factors. It appears that acts of kindness are more strongly influenced by situational factors than many of us think.