Bueno, Mandanas, Resurreccion,
Vergara
What norm did you violate?
The group broke the norm
that poor people are dirty and not well dressed.
Describe the breaching activity.
The
breaching activity was done in Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, Katipunan Branch.
What the group did was to dress up one of their members as a taong grasa
and then the group made the same member go inside coffee bean, look around as
if he was in awe, buy an expensive drink, sit down, and use his gadgets such as
an iPad, iPhone, and MacBook.
What were the different reactions of people?
At
first, people did not seem to care. However, when the poor person stayed long
enough while checking the place out, people started to notice and stare. Once
the poor person approached the counter, the barista seemed like she did not
want to look the beggar in the eye. After a few moments, the beggar ordered a
drink worth 145 pesos, gave the cashier a 1000 peso bill and the cashier said,
“Ah.. Okay po sir…” with confusion in her voice. After a while, the poor person
sat down and brought out his MacBook, iPad, and iPhone from a garbage bag. This
prompted people to stare and wonder. Once the order of the poor person was
done, the staff was hesitant to serve it and did not even bother to help the
poor person out. The male store clerk just pointed to where the poor person’s
drink was and distanced himself away unlike how they usually treat regular
customers. After taking his drink and sitting back down, the poor person went
back to minding his own business while using his laptop. While doing so, two
occasions where in a waiter and waitress came out of the kitchen saw the poor
person and stared with wide eyes and an open mouth. The waiter was even
laughing when he saw the guy. A few minutes later, the poor person took a call
and pretended to be talking about stocks and investments. While doing so, an
old woman entered the establishment and sat a few tables away. While the poor
person was on the phone, the old woman was just staring and disgust was very
evident in her face. In addition to this, there was also a couple a few tables
away who could not stop laughing when they heard the poor person talk about
millions and millions of cash investments. During the course of the whole
experiment, there were many other customers who went in and literally just
stared at the poor person. In addition to this, a high school classmate of the
guy who played the poor person went in and even made eye contact with him but
did not recognize his former classmate at all. In the end, when the poor person
finally left, he gave a tip to the cashier and the cashier was left stunned and
had nothing to say. Once the poor person finally exited the doors of the establishment,
the cashier and the waiters and waitresses kept looking as he walked away. Once
the poor person was out of sight, they started laughing and saying things such
as “Grabe naman yun,” “Ano kaya yun,” and the like. Given all this, we think
the people reacted this way because it is not every day that you see a person
who is wearing soiled clothing, no footwear, and a muddy face, in an
establishment that attracts a lot of people with high incomes. In addition to
this, the fact that this poor person seemed to be better off than others with
his gadgets, and his investment conversations, definitely affected how people
reacted. In the end, the experiment that the group definitely broke the norm
that poor people are dirty, however, the reaction of the people seemed as if
this deviant act reinforced the norm. The low views of the people and the looks
of surprise and awe that they gave shows how these people do not expect someone
who looks like a poor person to be of the same level or to be better off than
them.
Aside from the norms, what sociological themes are
at play for people to react in a certain way?
From what we observed, most of the reactions that we were
anticipated weren’t blown up to scale that people showed extreme emotion
towards our group mate. Although, it was the small reactions that was more fun
to see, and it varied per person. First, gender, when guys saw what was going
they either paid no mind, or just gave it a look and carried on, girl however
are a different story. Although it was not a staple reaction, which every girl
did, it was only done by the women in the vicinity; rather than stop at
staring, the girls ended up talking to each other softly while giving glances to
our group mate. Another clear sociological theme at play which I observed was
the difference between the working class and the middle class. We are on the
assumption that all customers present inside the coffee shop were middle class
or higher and all the employees were working class. People in the middle class
kept to themselves, and didn’t show too much squabbling about our group mate,
they kept their motions to lip pointing and subtle gazes, no very evident
action that would be taken note of, if you weren’t watching. The working class
however were a different matter, they blatantly stared and talked about my
group mate and even called the people in the back door to talk about him, it
was pretty amusing seeing the 2 distinct ways of reactions the 2 classes.
How did you feel when you did
this experiment?
At first, the group felt nervous about the activity. We
felt embarrassed, even though not all of us will act and dress like a poor
person. However, when we were doing the activity already, it actually felt fun
and exciting. There was a thrill in deviating from the norms because we knew
that people would react negatively towards it, which was proven in the end.
However, we were to do it on a regular basis and not just for experiments, we
believe that it would be hard on our part especially with all the judgment we
will receive. It is as if society already has consequences in store for us and
these consequences are preventing us from doing this. This same reason is also
why we were very hesitant at first. There were so many things we were worrying
about such as what if the guards won't even let us enter, what if they call the
police, etc. but the end product of the experiment made it worth it.
Other observations and
analysis.
Before the activity was performed, the group immediately
thought about how the beggar will not be allowed to even go inside the coffee
shop. The group was surprised by how the beggar simply went in the coffee shop
without anyone trying to prevent him from entering. The way the people reacted
when the activity began really surprised the group because the group was
expecting a lot of judgmental, harsh and degrading comments from people in the
coffee shop. The group was also surprised by how the barista of the coffee shop
still entertained the beggar despite his look. The group was excepting that the
barista will shoo away the beggar because of his filthy outfit. The security
guards of Regis Center also just stared at the beggar while the activity was
happening. They did not try to drive him away just how the group was expecting
them to do. Also, the people in Regis Center were not even staying away from
the beggar. They just walked with him. These things that the group observed
while the activity was ongoing somewhat made them question about how they
thought of society. Of course society did some of the things the group assumed
that they would do but the fact that some of the expected reactions did not
take place made the group think about how society thinks when it sees something
unusual. This showed that the actions society can never be really predicted.
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