SA21 - B
Jesslyn Lee
Dana Carmella
Jelo Felipe
Maria Lorenzo
Gerard Paul Tapel
Maui Ramos
Bryan Emmanuel Agosto
Norm violated
- The group aimed to break the norm of not talking to strangers.
- In the cultural context of the Philippines, it is out of the dorm to randomly go up to strangers and begin a conversation.
- This norm is taught by traditional Filipino parents in our childhood as it is needed to assure our safety and protection given the Philippines’ cultural context, where kidnappings occur often.
What was the
experiment?
- To break this norm, the group decided to walk up to strangers and ask if they would be interested in becoming friends and try to continue a flowing conversation.
- To generate some form of comparison, the group went to 2 places, a high-end shopping mall (SM Aura) and a low-end mall (Market Market!).
- We wanted to compare the different reactions of people from different social locations and we thought that a high and low end mall comparison would give us that.
- After each interaction, we revealed that we we’re doing an experiment for our SA class and asked for consent to use their pictures, videos and reactions.
Reactions (SM Aura)
- -Maria & Dana went up to this young woman sitting alone in McDonald’s.
- -They asked her if they wanted to be their friend.
- -She said that “it was okay, i can have my lunch alone” but she was smiling
- Maria & Dana approached this man walking in SM Aura.
- They greeted him hi & asked him if he wanted to be friends with them.
- He look at them for a while & said I’m 60 years old. I work at the dept. ed.
- Maria & Dana then told the man that they’re doing this for a project.
- Maria and Dana approached a 50-60 year-old woman and asked if they looked friendly enough to be friends
- the woman responded with “where are you from”
- Maria explained that this was for school
- Dana and maria walked away
- Jelo and Jethro approached a man sitting alone in a booth.
- They both introduced themselves to the man asking if he wanted to be friends with them.
- The man shook Jethro’s hand but proceeded to ignore us and just look at his cellphone.
- Maria & Dana approached these two young men sitting down waiting for their order.
- Maria & Dana sat down next to them & asked them if they wanted to be friends.
- Maria asked if her & Dana looked friendly.
- They hesitated for a bit but said yes. The four of them burst out laughing.
- Dana asked if they were celebrating something because they had a gift with them, but they just laughed, so Maria & Dana just walked away.
- They were caught by surprise and at first, tried to ignore him.
- The situation felt awkward as the ladies tried to ignore him.
- Jethro persisted and generated a response and eventually a selfie.
- The strangers were confused at first as to what was going on, but went along to be “our friends”.
- Maui proceeded to ask for a selfie and they happily welcomed the request without much hesitation.
- When we revealed that it was a social experiment, they grasped the idea and acknowledged our deviant behavior.
Reactions (Outside Market! Market!)
- Maria went up to bagger who was on duty, and asked if they could be friends. The bagger just asked “Why?” then Maria walked away.
- Jess approached the female train operator and asked if she could be friends with her.
- At first, the girl was kind of hesitant but later on agreed to it and she’s accommodating.
- Jess introduced herself and the lady also told Jess her name without hesitation.
- When Jess told the lady that it was for a social experiment, she nodded her head indicating that she finally understood the weird behavior and actually just laughed at it.
- Maria, Dana and Jess talked to the florist. When we asked if he could be friends with us, he said, “huh?” and it appears that he doesn't know how to respond.
- There was a long pause, he hesitated whether to ignore us or to talk to us
- In the end, he introduced himself in an awkward forced way
Reactions (Inside Market! Market!)
- Maria, Dana and Jess went up to a guy (wearing green shirt). We talked to him but he didn't react at first.
- After the second attempt, he just looked at us and wanted to say “WTH”
- We just left and didn't really bothered explaining to him about the experiment
- Maria, Jess and Dana approached 2 africans, and asked if they wanted to be friends they said “yes of course”
- The africans engaged in a short conversation about where they are from and how they like manila
- The store clerk was completely perplexed when we asked to be her friend.
- She was silent and stared at Jelo and Maui for 30 seconds before asking “Why?”
- It appeared that she was shocked with our approach and proceeded to say “No” to our friendship request.
- When we revealed that it was an experiment, she still could not comprehend what was going on.
- Maui approached a female security guard and to his surprise, was very responsive.
- The woman said “Sure!” to his friendship request instantly and proceeded to give her name (Karen) when Maui asked.
- She understood our objective when we revealed the experiment and gave us her consent to use the video in our project.
- Bryan and Jelo approached a group of guys and asked them if they wanted to be friends.
- The group was at first surprised and then started looking at each other with confused faces.
- The group responded with stiff smiles and muffled laughter along with some one word replies to our questions.
- The group just laughed after finding out that it was an experiment.
- Maui attempted to approach a foreigner but was ignored.
- It appeared that he was occupied at the time with his wife.
- Jelo approached the man and asked him about the book he was reading. Jelo also asked the man if the book was nice and if he could recommend any other books.
- The man gave Jelo a weird look while showing him the book and proceeded to mind his own business.
Thoughts about the Experiment
- Most people were indifferent since it is a norm in the Philippines to not talk to strangers.
- Filipinos are cautious of strangers due to widespread pickpocketing and scamming.
- Feigning ignorance, showing a lack of interest and avoiding any contact with the group is understandable in the Philippines.
- Foreigners are more engaging due to growing up to a different set of norms.
Sociological Themes at Play
Social class
- Lower class (most people from Market Market) gave cold responses due to being unable to comprehend English that much.
- English, being the prestige language, acted as a barrier.
- Foreigners from Africa in the Market Market were more inviting and friendly since they can speak English well.
- African foreigners are also from a different background from Filipinos.
Gender
- Male-to-Male, Male-to-Female, Female-to-Male, Female-to-Female have more or less the same interactions
Approaching groups vs individuals
- Groups approached by the group are a little bit open
- Individuals approached by the group are more closed when it comes to having a conversation
Feelings about the Experiment
- Initially, the group was nervous and anxious to conduct the experiment
- No one wanted to conduct it alone
- Girls paired up and began the experiment first to break the ice
- Guys were more hesitant for fear of being beaten up
- Rejection, cold responses, and no reactions from people made the group feel bad about ourselves and we the group felt unwanted and unworthy
- After a while it became easier to conduct the experiment, and it turned out to be fun
Other Observations and Analysis
Social Controls
- Mostly involves SelfControl the members of the group and the participants of the experiment have internalized the norm of not talking to strangers
- Another social control involved are Informal Controls negative sanctions of the participants to the members of the group through rejection, cold responses, and no reactions
Kinesics
- Reluctance of the participants to face their whole body to the group member, indicating the desire to end the conversation immediately
Proxemics
- Participants are constantly keeping a social space between the members of the group
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