Can simply looking at someone for 4 minutes improve your relationship?
Watch this video and witness the results for yourself:
This interesting social experiment is conducted by leading life insurance company, Prudential, as part of their new Relationship Reconnect initiative.
Inspired by growing evidence of relationship stress among family members and in the workplace, Prudential believes Singaporeans are experiencing what amounts to a compassion and empathy deficit.
The Relationship Reconnect initiative is based on work done by American psychologist Dr. Arthur Aron and was borne from the brand’s desire to help deepen people’s understanding of the importance of our personal relationships and the value we hold to them.
A bit of background on the social experiment.
It was overseen by a local counselling psychologist in Singapore who worked with twelve pairs of Singaporeans in different types of relationships, such as married couples, siblings and parent-child duos. They were asked to focus and look quietly at each other for four minutes in an effort to evoke a deeper emotional connection.
The video you see is the end result of the often-poignant moments from the interactions and the subsequent feedback after the experiment.
“When we first did the experiment, it was interesting to see the wave of emotions participants experienced – love, pride, sadness, happiness. But more importantly, we were humbled to hear them express the empathy they felt as they realised they had been missing a deeper understanding of that person they hold so dear.” Shared Angela Hunter, Chief Marketing Officer, Prudential in Singapore.
When was the last time you have slowed down and taken a long look at your parents or your partner?
You can do this social experiment by yourselves too at home. Go try it! It just takes 4 minutes of your time to make a big difference in your life.
This post has been presented by Prudential, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.