SA 21 Breaching Experiment
Paula Mikaela Sta Maria
Ira Galvadores
Camille Castro
Rohan Sugapong
1. What norm did you violate?
The norm with marriage proposals during the modern era is that it is usually done with someone you love, have known for years, and approved by your family. Marriages involve two people who mutually share a close bond. A person does not propose to a random shopper in a mall or a stranger in a street. Our group deviated from this norm by proposing to unknown shoppers and workers in a mall.
2. Describe the breaching experiment in detail. What was the activity? Where did you do it?
Our breaching experiment which defied the norms of marriage proposals was held in the department store, a music store, an appliance shop, and some boutiques of SM North Edsa. The prop needed for the test was a ring. A member of the group performed as the marriage proposer to the unaware subject or stranger while the cameraman recorded the experiment and the rest of the group acted as an audience. The proposer approached the subject by facing the subject or kneeling in front of the subject. The proposer showed the ring and then asked for the subject’s hand in marriage by saying, “Will you marry me?”
3. What were the different reactions of the people? List all possible reactions you observed. What caused this reactions?
Most of the reactions we received after proposing were questions about what we were doing and what was going on. They usually responded with questions like “Ha?”, Bakit?”, and “Ano meron?”.
A male adult shopper in the department store laughed when he heard the marriage proposal and then continued to browse through some clothes while smiling. He asked what was going on and then politely said no after the proposal was repeated. One male teenager said very little. He only smiled and tried to avoid the female proposer. He only spoke when he agreed to post his video on the blog. An employee in a music store was confused when he was proposed to. “Ano ‘to?” he said. When his colleague suggested that it was probably a social experiment, he agreed and started playing along by accepting the proposer’s ring. He reached his hand out which signalled the proposer to place the ring on his finger. After explaining our project he even joked if he was going to be payed for his participation. His reaction could have been caused by the presence of his colleague. His colleague, as a third party, made the situation less awkward which lead to his playful response. The proposal to an employee at an electronics store was interesting; though the proposal was sudden and unexpected, a few seconds passed and every other employee in the store were cheering along with us, helping us pressure the guy into saying “yes”. It was clear that the people were looking for a change from the usual, and were game to participate in a cheesy moment like a proposal. The proposal to a young male adult was also interesting. He was walking with his friend in the department store when we approached him. When I asked him, “Kuya, will you marry me?”, his friend looked so fazed. But the one we proposed too was smiling and he seemed interested and amused. He asked, “Para saan ‘yan?”. We were cheering, “Say yes! Sige na kuya, say yes!” and he eventually said yes hesitantly. He then asked what is was for and we explained that it was for our Sociology project. One person, whom we thought of at first as a guy, was approached by a female proposer. The proposal was interesting because we didn’t know that the person was gay. He just said, “Ay teh,” which made us realize that he wasn’t a man. He didn’t stop walking so we weren’t able to explain what the reason behind the proposal was.
For the case of our male member’s proposal, he was all rejected by all his “test subjects”. He proposed to five females and one male. The first female he proposed to was a person whose age is ranging from fifty to sixty. She didn’t take the experiment seriously and she handled the situation calmly and maturely as she rejected his proposal. His second target was a female of the same age group as his. She panicked as our sole male member of the group proposed to her, having a “twitterpated”(kinikilig/pakipot) reaction and facial expression as she rejected his proposal. She never said anything to him nor did she authorize the group to include her reaction video in the uploaded file. His next targets were an SM sales lady and three shoppers, two of which were female and one was male. The reactions of the sales lady and one of the female shoppers were questioning our male member, asking him why is he proposing to them, what is it for and what is going on. They even said to him that they do not know him so why should they marry him. The other female shopper anticipated through her intuition that we were doing a social experiment. The male person that our male member proposed to got scared when approached to but calmed down when we clarified to him that we were just doing as social experiment.
The deviant act reinforced the current norm of proposals in society. When they were faced with the marriage proposal, they tried to normalize the conversation by asking what was going on or ignoring the unknown proposer. The deviant act showed how strong the norm about marriage proposal is because no one believed or took the deviant proposer seriously.
4. Aside from the norms, what sociological themes are at play for people to react this way?
(compare reactions according to social class, gender, age)
The employees of the mall were more friendly and open to the experiment compared to the customers.
Females usually ignored and avoided the male proposer at first. Only a few answered the proposal. Males interacted more with their female proposers. They were more straightforward with their questions regarding the situation and usually stayed in their original position even after the marriage proposal.
The younger males or females were more understanding of the objectives of the social experiment. When we explained what the proposal was for, they were considerate and they said “yes” without any hesitation when asked if it was okay to post their reaction videos in the blog.
5. How did you feel when you did the experiment? How does it feel to deviate from the norm? Were you hesitant?
During our first try, we were all hesitant to do the experiment because there were a lot of people and we were afraid of what the respondents’ reactions may be when we test the social experiment on them. We were nervous at first because the people might get mad or irritated when we propose to them, but as we went along with the experiment, we became more and more comfortable with proposing to random people. We kind of felt bad when people rejected us or if they did not want their reaction videos to be posted on the blog. But overall, it was a really good experience because we were able to overcome whatever fear or hesitance we had in the beginning. We also felt really happy and relieved when people engage themselves in the experiments, when they go along with the proposal and say “yes”.
6. Other observations and analysis on activity or deviance in general?
There was nothing much really to observe more on deviance except that when someone really deviates, people in the society would normally get weirded out. During the deviance test, bystanders would also have various reactions. When we proposed to employees in the mall, their co-workers would usually silently or openly make fun of the situation, while shoppers completely got weirded out. For customers, bystanders would pass by and look at the situation and also get weirded out by it. Another thing is that once an act of deviance happens at a certain area, people would start talking about it that a lot of people would be aware of what’s happening before the situation would happen to them. This was observed when one of us was about to approach a man but he and his companion were looking at us already, as if they were anticipating what was going to happen.
Video of the experiment after the jump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM5j2twBlOs&feature=youtu.be
Video of the experiment after the jump.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xM5j2twBlOs&feature=youtu.be
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