SA 21 BREACHING EXPERIMENT

Carmen Ang

Jambo Daco

Gabriel De Los Santos

Rafa Marchadesch

Alessandra Pineda

SA 21 - E

Breaching Experiment

• What norm did you violate?
• We violated the norm of personal space and privacy.
• Describe the breaching experiment in detail. What was the activity? Where did you do it?
• In order to violate these norms, we wanted to create an experiment that would feel like an “invasion” of privacy. We went to McDonald’s in Katipunan, and had someone buy food and sit with a random stranger. There would be no talking from our breacher; he/she would only sit at the table (preferably with one person who was alone) and eat and stare at the stranger in silence. We had one person film the situation, so that we can properly observe the reactions. The person who was filming had to film inconspicuously, though, that did not necessarily happen.
• What were the different reactions of the people? List all possible reactions you observed. Why do you think they reacted this way? What caused these reactions? Did the deviant act re-affirm/reinforce the existing norms based on these reactions?
• As expected, our breaching experiment created a discomfort among those who were “targeted”, as well as from others who saw what we were doing. One of the people we did our breaching experiment on, was a girl who was sitting alone. One of our group members, Jambo, sat down next to her and started eating his burger while watching her. At first, the girl was a bit shocked, and she took out one of her earphones, since she was expecting him to say something. She didn’t do anything else, but was on her phone (probably telling her friends that some random guy sat down next to her). As this was happening, Rafa was filming on the side. To not look too suspicious, he went and sat at a table with our blockmate, and filmed from there. Unfortunately, several people saw Rafa filming, these people alerted the guard and three people told him to actually stop filming since that it wasn’t allowed in McDonald’s. After finding out we weren’t allowed to film, we decided to go ahead with the experiment without filming. Jambo then sat with a guy who was sitting alone as well this time. The person we breached first just stared at me without saying a word. Then 30 second went by he said "can I help you?" Just as the experiment said I did not respond and continued to stare. He brushed it off and continued his work. Roughly after 30 seconds again he said angrily "seriously bro, do you want something?!" Then again I did not respond. But little under 20 seconds he got mad and I had to say that we were filming for a social experiment.
• Aside from the norms, what sociological themes are at play for people to react in a certain way? Is it a function of gender (gender norms, roles), social class (norms of the rich & the poor), values/beliefs of institutions (religion, family, peer group, etc.). 
• Our group believes that Proxemics has a role in this experiment. People reacted the way they did because they believe that their personal space bubble was invaded, this was the main cause of discomfort in the experiment. An aspect of Filipino culture was also violated in this experiment, in other countries it is more acceptable for strangers to speak to each other and even share tables in public places. In the Philippines, there is a shyness when it comes to strangers, although Filipinos are very welcoming and hospitable, this does not translate well when we are taken by surprise as were the test subjects in our breaching experiment. The lack of conversation on our breacher’s end with the subject they were interacting with can be analyzed with the use of the Sapir-Whorf Theory. The theory states that people understand the world of culture with language, and because our breacher did not speak and also invaded the personal space (Proxemics) of the test subject, the subject was uncomfortable because their was no understanding between our breacher and the subject. Based on our experiment, it’s seen that without speech, people’s ability to properly interact and other people gets somewhat handicapped. In our experiment, the difference between the reactions of the male and female subjects also comes to play. The girl subject in the experiment, was very nice about her discomfort. Although it was evident that she was surprised and in discomfort, she was not rude about it. She even extended respect to our breacher by taking her earphones off in anticipation of conversation. On the other hand, our male subject was more hostile and rude as compared to the girl. In the perspective of the Gender Speech Contrast, it’s seen that men and women use language differently. Even though the girl did not say anything, her body language showed a sort of warmness to our breacher. As compared to our male subject, there was more aggression and reluctance when ur breacher sat with him. Overall, our breaching experiment violated the norms of proxemics and personal space and privacy. The reactions can be viewed and analyzed with the use of the Sapir-Whorf Theory and the Gender Speech Contrast which both point back to the norms of acceptable and expected human interaction. The experiment enforced the existence of norms in public places in relation to gender and culture.
• 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?
• This experiment proved to be very "nerve racking" for Jambo and Rafa. There was a lot of hesitation involved from the both of them to do the breaching experiment. Jambo felt very anxious in doing this because he, too was aware of the social norm and the fact that we were breaking it made him more anxious. When Rafa got reprimanded by the Security guard, he felt very nervous since he caught attention from other people. The experiment made us feel reassured that society still has borders that still keep strangers apart while still showing the attempt to bond them together. It also allowed me realize that people have borders that shouldn't be broken since all people are different. It was observed that as Jambo approached the girl, the girl looked at Jambo. When Jambo took a seat beside the girl, the girl took of one of her earphones in anticipation that Jambo will strike-up a conversation with the girl, she decided to take her earphones off in anticipation of conversation and it is a norm to give someone your undivided attention when conversing hence the removal of the earphones. As Jambo was staring at the girl while eating his burger, the girl was observed to be texting on her phone. We believe that the girl was texting her friends that some guy sat beside her and was staring at her. Then Jambo revealed that we were doing a social experiment on the girl. It was observed that the girl put on both of her earphones and continued with whatever she was doing. It was observed that the guy was more responsive and direct compared to the girl, the guy even asked if Jambo needed anything from him. Without any response from Jambo, the guy became a bit more aggressive. At the perspective of our Cameraman, a lot of people noticed that he was filming. Some people decided to alert one of the waiters about the incident. The waiter then informed the security guard about the incident, then the security guard reprimanded our cameraman. It was observed that videoing was heavily looked down upon since, many of the people in the establishment reacted negatively towards the incident. We didn’t want to risk getting kicked out, so we stopped filming. It was observed that the security guard and some of the waiters were still looking at our group.