I still wonder if this is staged. Do you know if it was?

i don't know much about it.  there is one on youtube from barcelona with many more hits.  maybe it is a trending thing... trust hugs around the world!

This one? It's from 2013...

Here's one from Japan in Feb 2014.

Yeah, I'm not sure what the origin of these is.

having the sign directly below them at their feet poses a hugging problem.  the istanbul guy got it right by putting the sign near himself, but not on himself.

plus, he gave better hugs.  :)

but it was interesting in the japanese one to see the guy close up shop at the end.

All astute observations. So none of them really took a scientific approach to this experiment. 

Another trust experiment by Peter Sharp:

that's right, you little spiral-eyed optimistic lover, you!

Ha! There's a version of this comic where she's the "face hugger" from the Alien movies. 😊