SA 21-B: RANDOM CLAPPING AT STRANGERS

SA 21-B

GROUP NAME: SureA 21

GROUP MEMBERS: Lance Derek Andallaza, Cherryl Comida, John Rey Eraga, Joshua Seth Guariña, Jevin Hung

1. What norm did you violate?

Our group deviated the norm of clapping on appropriate circumstances. Clapping is usually done as an appreciation, approval or enjoyment of something that has been done successfully. In our breaching experiment, we specifically deviated what we think are the important factors that are needed to be considered in clapping: to whom clapping is directed to, who are clapping, what was the action done and what is the nature of the event. In a sense we also violated the norm that indoors or places where it would normally be serene there would not be much noise as we would suddenly start clapping and cheering in such places causing people to be surprised.

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

Our group applauded and cheered randomly at people and generally in a completely calm situation where nobody would normally be clapping. We did it in two places. First was along the street in Katipunan where we clapped at random people who happened to be walking by as we walked the street. The other place we went to was a mall in Barangka, Marikina called Riverbanks. Here we chose to clap around the benches where people would usually sit and relax. We also applauded at a place behind riverbanks overlooking the Marikina river where people would usually relax and sit on the stairs and the grassy area.

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 reaffirm/reinforce the existing norms based on these reactions?

In this experiment there were different reactions that we were able to observe from people. For the people who were just walking by the street in Katipunan we found that they in general had no reaction as to why we were applauding. We believe it is likely that the fact that they are walking means they are more focused on something else like perhaps their destination. Perhaps they might have assumed that we were clapping for people who were behind them so they did not react also. When we went to Riverbanks and applauded at people we noticed that people were generally surprised as to why we would applauded. We believe that this is because when we are relaxing we would usually have our guard down and we would not really be expecting anything random like some people suddenly making noise to show up. We also got a reaction from older people where they said “Kumukulo ang dugo ko sa inyo, or tumataas ang dugo ko sa inyo”. We believe it may be due to their age making it more unhealthy for them to suddenly be surprised like the noise produced from our cheering that caused this. We also noticed that our clapping may have played to the norms of the people or rather made them believe that we are just conforming to a norm and followed along to our reaction. We noticed that when we cheered especially outside the mall setting where people were usually resting, that there were actually people who cheered along. We believe that they in a way did not think that anyone would break norms and therefore when we broke norms by randomly cheering they played along and cheered as well. Another factor could have been the location as we noticed that in this park like setting there were people who were dancing, or practicing their cheerleading routines so perhaps it is not weird for someone to do something worthy of applause in this setting. Therefore when we clapped they also believed that there is something worth clapping for. We also noticed that more often than not we would get more reactions if we were able to coordinate the clap well or rather we were able to all clap at the same time and it was rather loud. This is likely because some reactions aren’t actually obtained by the clapping that we do, but rather the mere fact that a loud noise was suddenly produced out of nowhere thus causing such a change in the reactions depending on the volume of our cheers and how well we were able to coordinate with one another when we cheered.

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), or social class (norms of the rich & poor)?

According to Social Context

There were a difference of reaction observed between conducting the experiment in the uncrowded streets of Katipunan and in a crowded mall in Marikina called Riverbanks. The people who were walking around the streets of Katipunan can be classified as coming from the rich or the middle class. The people who were walking around Riverbanks may be classified as coming from the middle or the low class. For example, when we were clapping while walking the streets of Katipunan. The people who would hear us clapping would not even look or care about us. They did not give any reaction or even wonder why we were clapping so loud. On the other hand, when we were doing the experiment in Riverbanks. People were looking at us and even wondering why we were clapping so loud. The people are also very surprised whenever we started clapping and some also reacted badly about us doing it.

According to Age

            There were also a difference of reaction observed between people who are young and old. When we tried clapping so loudly beside a person who is young, he did not do or say anything and just looked at us. But when we tried clapping so loudly beside a person who is old, he looked quite angry with us doing it. We told him that it was just an experiment for a class, and he told us that his blood went high because he was so surprised with what we did.  

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?

During the experiment, our group felt extremely hesitant in deviating the norm. We felt embarrassed and somehow, worried as to how people might react to how we would deviate from the norms. We were particularly worried when we were applauding and cheering near elder people as they had reactions with clear signs that they were rather irritated with the researchers. They also said things like “tumataas ang dugo ko sa inyo” and such things which of course made the researchers more hesitant to applaud other elder people as it may cause complications with regards to their health and that would definitely not be in the best interest of anybody conducting a social experiment.

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

The researchers found the activity to be rather exciting, but at the same time rather troublesome and really brought about a sense of worry within the researchers. I believe that by conducting this type of research/experiment we were able to better understand how imposing norms truly are to our society as we find that many of us would actually refuse to break them and even some of the researchers who would break the norms in certain circumstances would shy away within a different location or context. We believe this is because of the fear of being ostracized by others which when we think about it is what is known as an informal punishment for deviating from the norms and it’s not a punishment that is brought down by having laws in play. It is really a huge wake up call as to just how even just the fear of ostracism and mockery can help shape the way a society or even just a certain group of people within a certain location would act and feel as if they are acting according within the realm of what is “Acceptable” which is in nature a construct that society has merely created to be able to dictate what we may or may not do with our free will.

Another observation we had on deviation is that society would really view people who do such things as lowly or maybe perhaps “pulling a prank” as many of the adults seemed to not just look at us with irritation when we explained what we were doing, they also looked at us with a sense of doubt. As if they did not believe us one bit that what we were doing was for an experiment for school, but like we were just there to ruin their day.