SA21 E - Ball is Life

Dane Castro
Mycah Chua
Hazel Gatdula
Hassan Halabisaz
Marcos Ignacio
Ralph Tuquib

Ball is Life: Breaching Experiment

1) What norm did you violate?

We tried to violate the norm of having personal space even in public places, wherein one needs to walk straight and minding his/her business. We also tried to violate the norm of being discreet and calm in a public space where one shouldn’t behave in a disorderly manner.

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

We would like to see if people will get annoyed when a person blocks their way and does weird things. The experiment would start by approaching a random stranger walking and blocking his/her way by doing basketball moves in front of him/her. The experiment was conducted in UPTC specifically the hallways where a lot of people pass by. The whole experiment was recorded to capture the different reactions of people.

3) 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?

Males in a group:

• One just stared (young)
• One followed the movement of the person acting out the basketball moves to see where they were shooting, then laughed (middle-aged)

Male alone:

• Some people stared (old & young)
• One blocked the shot and laughed (middle-aged)
• One followed the movement of the person acting out the basketball moves to see where they were shooting (old)

Females in a group:

• Some just stared or ignored (young & old)
• One got scared (young)
• One laughed (young)

Female alone:

• One ignored at first then laughed (young)
• Ignored and continued to walk (young & old)
• One moved away to avoid contact (young)

Female w male

• One just stared (young)
• One followed the movement and seemed to be curious about what was happening (old and young)

The reactions of the people vary from each other wherein Some people just ignored or stared at the actor because they didn’t know how to react. Some also laughed because they thought that it was weird/funny. We would say that the experiment reaffirmed the existing norms because it showed how people deviated from normally just walking straight without any obstacles in their path. Instead they deviated from the norms, stopping to stare, following a certain movement or laughing.

4) 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.). [You could design the experiment based on these sociological themes. For example, you could compare reactions according to gender, social class, etc. That would more interesting--and might obtain a better grade! :)]

The experiment shows that people who are part of the lower class based on what they are wearing are more likely to laugh because they might find it funny or to follow the movement of the person conducting the experiment, while people of the higher class may find it weird so they would just ignore or stare at the actor.  It also shows that males whether alone or in a group are more likely to react if they are older/adults, as compared to students or younger people. This may be because adults are more wary of their surroundings that they would be more reactive. Moreover, females react more discreetly than males, as seen in a male blocking the shot and a female just laughing or staring after she passes the actor. This may be due to the fact that society expects females to be more quiet and demure, while males are expected to be more unreserved. Another factor as to why more males looked back, followed the movement and seemed interested in what the person acting out the basketball moves was doing was because males are more interested in basketball as compared to females. Also, people in a group tend to react the same way with their peers because of conformity. An example of this would be the males in a group where all of them followed using their eyes the movement of the person acting.

5) 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?

It was exciting at first because it sounded like a fun idea but when we were doing it, we became a little shy to do them. It felt odd doing them because we were not used to doing them and it was totally out of the ordinary, but at the same time it was fun because you can do whatever you want without not wanting to look like a weird person since that was the goal in mind. We were hesitant at the start to do the actions because we were scared to be judged and we had no idea what to expect from their reactions. Eventually, it got fun so we tried mixing it up just to see if we can get a better reaction.

6) Other observations and analysis that you may have on the activity and on deviance in general.

We observed that only the people that were directly being affected were reacting. The others that were near or could at least see them more often than not, did not react or showed indifference. We also observed that to be able to generate evident reactions, the deviant act must directly affect the victim and not just his/her surroundings.