No one likes a bully and it's crucial to educate people about the impact it has. This is something IKEA have ilustrated perfectly after they filmed the effect of negative words - compared to compliments - on a plant. Sounds crazy but bear with us.
Many people will know how damaging bullying can be but who knew plants could react in the same way as some victims of the nasty behaviour? We would never have guessed but the results are astounding.
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As reported by Metro, the flatpack giant asked students at GEMS Wellington Academy in Dubai to record a load of insults and compliments. It then took two plants and gave them both the exact same conditions in terms of the amount of sunlight and water - but altered what the plants 'listened' to. Yes, really.
The 'bullied' plant was played recordings of negative, hurtful comments, such as, 'You're not even green' and 'You look rotten'. We feel sad just reading this.
The other plant listened to recordings of positive comments like, 'Seeing you blossom makes me happy'. Now we're warm again.
They played the comments on a loop for a period of 30 days.
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The plant receiving positive messages remained healthy, however the one which was played all the negative comments simply wilted and became discoloured.
Some people have said this is a similar effect to that which impacts on victims of bullying. And we couldn't think of a better way to educate people.
Now, it does seem kind of unbelievable doesn't it? But IKEA isn't the first to test out this kind of hypothesis.
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Many gardeners will claim that saying positive things to their plants help them to grow and MythBusters even tested it out for themselves, concluding that plants that are talked to grow better than plants which grow in silence (although they said there was no conclusive proof that what you say to your plants has any effect).
Some were sceptical though saying it was, well, basically a load of crap. But according to IKEA it was a legitimate experiment.
In a statement the Swedish company said: "The live experiment involved IKEA taking two of its very own plants and installing them at the school. Both plants were treated strictly the same.
"The only difference being one plant heard compliments and words of encouragement, while the other was verbally bullied with hateful words, for one month."
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Of course, the message is the important part here - everything benefits from positivity. And what a great (if bizarre) example this is.
Featured Image Credit: IKEA UAETopics: Interesting, Bullying, Community, IKEA