Random High Fives
Dellosa, Kiu, Mayo, Perez, Umandap
1. What norm did you violate?
- The norm that we violated was the norm that you can't just randomly ask strangers in public places for high fives or signs of friendship or acquaintance.
2. Describe the beaching experiment in detail. What was the activity? Where did you do it?
- The breaching experiment we did was we had to ask random strangers on the streets, tricycle stations, and in the mall for high fives. First, we would walk down to our "victims" in a casual way with a camera behind us. Then, as we would pass by them, we would casually ask for a high fives in order to make it seem like we do know those strangers. After seeing their reaction, we would casually walk away or make it clear to them that it is just an experiment. We would repeat this multiple times with different people asking for high fives to make it less suspicious. We would do this activity until we get a sufficient amount of responses from these people. In addition, we did this experiment for multiple and various types of people in different places to see the differences in their reactions.
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?
- We observed that everyone would start out as being shocked, surprised, or have a bit of a weird feeling when we approached them and asked for a high five. Although, we observed that the people in the streets were more open to accepting these requests while the people in UP Town Center were more reluctant into accepting the high five request. As a result, their "surprised" or "shocked" reaction showed that there is a norm that you cannot just ask random strangers for these physical signs of friendship or acquaintance.
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, social class, values and beliefs of institutions?
- Social Class plays an important role in their reactions. We observed this because people who are in the lower class tend to be more open to the request. This is probably due to the fact that they do not have a “snobbish type of attitude. Also, the place might also come into factor because these lower class people also stay in a lower type of area which makes it easier for them to accept the request and be a little informal. In addition, higher class people are more reluctant to accept because they manifest the higher class type of attitude. They are more reluctant to talk to strangers because it would cause them to step out of the formal comfort zone. As a result, social class plays in important role due to the way of thinking of these people based on their beliefs against strangers.
- Gender also plays an important role because we observed that most women would be reluctant to accept the request especially if it was a man who was asking for a high five. This is probably due to the fact that men may be perceived as a threat or someone who may be planning something that could cause harm to them. In addition, we observed that men are more open to accepting because they do not feel threatened as much even if it as a man who is also asking for the high five. As a result, gender plays an important role because it helps shape the way of thinking these people have against the random strangers who are asking for high fives.
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People’s different values also have a role in their reactions. This is
because we observed that people who have more conservative values in public
places tend to be more reluctant to accept the high five request. Also, people
who seem to have less conservative values tend to accept the request more. As a
result, the different values people have towards strangers in public place play
an important role because they help in determining their reactions.
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?
- We felt awkward and extremely hesitant to do this activity because it would be weird to go against the social norms. Also, we thought of what these people would think of us after we conduct this experiment because it wouldn’t be what people perceive as normal. In addition, we also felt reluctant to do this experiment because it would force us to step out of the comfort zones that the social norms provide. Although this experiment was hard at first, it was extremely fulfilling to see and analyze how these people would react to our deviance to these social norms.
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Deviating from the norms felt a bit
disturbing at first. Also, the norms that we deviated from involved interaction
with random people in these public places. In addition, it also felt awkward
whenever these people would look at us in a different way. This is probably due
to the fact that we were going against these social norms and thus, were not
doing something that was perceived as normal. As a result, deviating from the social
norms is not something that is easy to do because of all the reactions that you
may get from the people.
6. Other observations and analysis that you may have on the activity and on deviance in general.
- We also observed that people who are in groups may be more open to accepting the request. This might be due to the fact that being in a group gives them a sense of security and thus, allows them to have a greater chance of accepting the request.
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The type of place could also play a factor in
their reactions. This is because we observed that people who are in less sophisticated
places seem to be more open to accept the request. Also, people who are in more
sophisticated places (e.g. UP Town Center) seem to be more reluctant because
these people are also most probably higher class people. As a result, these
place also tend to have an effect on the reactions of people because of the
type of people mostly present in these types of locations.
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