SA21: Breaching Experiment

Winking as an Act of Deviance

Section B, Group A (Baniqued, Capistrano, Cruz, Sanchez)

Breaching Experiment Video

What norm did you violate?

Our group’s breaching experiment violated the norms practiced between strangers. In our society, it is the norm for strangers not to interact when they come across each other. When meeting a stranger, the norm is to introduce yourself and offer a handshake, by winking at strangers we are testing the folkways practiced during casual encounters with strangers.

Winking is most commonly seen as a simple act of flirtariousness or playfulness. It is considered as an informal mode of communication that usually signals sexual attraction or shared hidden knowledge and intent. Given this definition of winking and how it is viewed by most people in society, it is most unusual to find a random stranger winking at you out of nowhere. Furthermore, winking at a person betrays a sense of familiarity and ease between two people; and so, directing this kind of action towards a stranger is definitely uncommon.

Describe the breaching experiment in detail. What was the activity? Where did you do it?

For our experiment, we each caught a stranger’s attention and then winked at them. We tried several approaches as well as variations for this experiment.  Our first attempts were a little difficult because we were trying to get the stranger’s attention without speaking to them, which took some time. For the latter trials, we used different tactics to catch their attention including calling them before winking at them or changing the angle of our position in reference to them.  We performed these experiments in various places around the campus; we started off outside the Gonzaga cafeteria where people wait on the benches. We then proceeded to Matteo down and sat beside our subjects; this was an easier area because the silence made it easier to catch the subjects’ attention. Lastly, we went to Matteo up to interview more people (including the printing lady and guard). This location was noisier so we were able to go up to people or sit in their table to conduct the experiment.  Aside from these, we also had variation in terms of gender. We began with boy to girl pairs but branched out to see the reactions between boy-girl, girl-boy, boy-boy, and girl-girl.

What were the different reactions of the people? List all possible reactions you observed.

         The reactions of those individuals (Atenean students and staff) whom the group chose to experiment on did not vary greatly. Instead, most of them had more or less the same kind of reaction towards the deviant act that the different members of the group exemplified – namely, winking randomly at a random person. Note that these random people were briefed about the reasons for such an unusual encounter on an otherwise normal day immediately after the experiment.

        First, the group approchaed a random girl sitting alone on a bench outside the Gonzaga Cafeteria. From afar, it was obvious that the girl was too busy minding her own business, seeing as how she seemed very intent on using her phone. It was because of this that, she barely noticed the group’s presence. However, once a group member started to wink and smile at her, she looked up quickly and then down again. From the the rest of the members’ vantage point, she seemed a bit shocked and confused with what was happening.

            The next person that the group approached was a man who was also situated outside Gonzaga. He appeared to be sitting alone and so one of the members came from behind, walked by and winked right at him while he was doing so. Now, the reaction of this man was friendlier. Instead of ignoring what had occurred, he seemed to return Jose’s wink with a somewhat surprised expressiona and half-smile.

Both of the girls in Matteo had similar reactions. The two of them seemed weirded out by the boldness and “weirdness” of the group member who kept on winking at them for no apparent reason. Mostly, they avoided eye contact and minded their own business. On the other hand, the two boys showed a clearer sense of bewilderment and a bit of annoyance. Their faces appeared to be more open in displaying their confusion towards the whole thing. Suffice it to say, they made faces to illustrate whatever it was that was going on in their minds at the time. Lastly, the lady in charge of manning the printer had a similar reaction to the boys upon looking at the group member who walked up to her and winked at her repeatedly. Based on her reaction, she seemed to find it a bit funny. She was definitely confused.

            For the other individuals that the group experimented on, they more or less had the same reactions as those mentioned above. People either reacted with vague annoyance and curiosity or downright ignored the group member.

Why do you think they reacted this way? What caused these reactions?

           

          Since the entire purpose of the breaching experiment was to perform a deviant act in order to witness how people would react to such an unsual situation, it wasn’t exactly surprising to find that their reactions were a mixture of confusion, bewilderment, curiosity, annoyance and a bit of humor.

          These reactions were most probably caused by their feelings of unease and uncomfortableness. In the case of those who simply ignored being winked at it is probably because most people would not know how to exactly react to this kind of circumstance given that it is not something that people usually do.

         In truth, there are many factors at play that could affect the various responses of the individuals, among which are sex, age, gender and social class. Here are some questions to consider in order to get a grasp of the individual’s reactions:

ü  Was the individual male or female?

ü  Was the individual old or young?

ü  Was the individual a student or worker?

ü  Who winked at the individual – was it a male or female?

Did the deviant act re-affirm/reinforce the existing norms based on these reactions?

            The chosen deviant act definitely reinforced some of the existing norms based on the different reactions that the group was able to observe and witness during the breaching experiment. Since winking is not exactly a common way of greeting or acknowledging a random person you encounter on a day-to-day basis, a lot of the individuals whom the group experimented on reacted somewhat negatively – that is to say that they weren’t immediately friendly towards whoever was winking at them. After the experimentation, the group was re-affirmed with the fact that most people perceive deviant acts as violations of societal norms.

Aside from the norms, what sociological themes are at play for people to react in a certain way? Is it a function of gender, social class, values/beliefs of institutions?

Obviously, the various meanings of winking were socially constructed and taught to us by the social institutions and the agents of socialization. These meanings are also interchangeable based on the social situation. However, these agents of socialization, such as the media and peers, have also taught us the concept of “being creepy” in romantic endeavors. This suggests that winking randomly to strangers can be considered “creepy”, wherein this is more prevalent when guys do it, compared to when a girl does it. Although, a wink from a stranger could be interpreted in other various ways, depending on the social construct of her schema. The wink could just be seen as someone joking around, or as a compliment aside from it being creepy.

The presentation of self plays a major role in the reactions of the people. As Goffman suggested, we take on a role, put on the mask, depending on the situation at hand. With the idea that people should be respectful to strangers, to not be offensive, to not start a conflict, the reactions of the people are based around these social constructs. The people try to present themselves according to these beliefs and norms in order to avoid being looked down upon by others and by self-control, as it is acceptable to be a kind and respectful person, rather than being mean and aggressive. As a result, their reactions mainly consisted of facial gestures [a confused look] and just simply turning away. Some even smiled back before returning to what they were doing prior to the wink.

With the concept of Dramaturgy, it can be said that their reactions are their front stage performances. Nobody really spoke up; there were no loud reactions, only subtle ones. These reactions occurred in order to protect their image, in order to not appear as a mean person. The same goes for those who smiled, they decided to acknowledge the wink in a positive manner in order to appear as someone kind. However, in the case of the manong in Gonzaga, his reaction  (a smile) could suggest that he was showing respect, due to the difference of class. From this, knowing their true reaction to the wink would be difficult, as they reserved it for their “backstage”. However, their reactions are hinted by their presentation of self in the front stage.

From our perspective, the ones who are committing the deviant act, the awareness our self-image are seen through our feelings during the experiment. Basically, our feelings of awkwardness and embarrassment came from the knowledge and fear of being creepy, and as a result of this, we felt hesitant to do it. All in all, this experiment shows the importance for people to be in a group, conforming and not deviating from it. People would assimilate a role, a mask, to follow society’s ideas, beliefs, and norms while hiding their personal insights. Also, people would tend to hesitate in deviating, and feel ashamed if they do due to their concern to what others thing and the internalization of beliefs.

How did you feel when you did this experiment? How does it feel to deviate from the norms? Were you hesitant to do the activity?

While doing the experiment, we were initially hesitant. We felt ashamed and embarrassed after doing it because of the fact that we committed an act that we otherwise would not have done on a regular day. Possibly one of the most awkward parts was establishing eye contact (which can be seen as quite an intimate or straightforward act) between the stranger and us in order to initiate the wink. However, these feelings were only short lived, we were able to get over it quickly, and continued on, as this deviance was relatively simple and only dealt with folkways. More than this, it was also entertaining to witness the several reactions of the people around campus. From time to time, we would giggle or laugh at a particularly funny response from someone who was randomly winked at. Towards the end, we became bolder when it came to winking at our chosen “victims”.