SA21A Breaching Experiment (Dumadag, Go, Hatol, Racoma, Roxas, Silva)

1. What norm did you violate?

People usually go to stores where they want to shop and not the other way around. In this breaching experiment, what we did was to approach people and try to sell them banana chips and chocolate cookies. One norm violated would be the clothing of the vendors found in the mall. Vendors would usually wear a polo shirt and jeans but in one part of the experiment, our group mate wore clothes usually worn at home (shorts, and slippers) while selling the chips and cookies.

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

In this breaching experiment, what our group did was to randomly approach people and try to sell them banana chips and chocolate cookies. The first thing a group mate of ours did was to dress up like an Atenean. He wore a polo shirt, pants, and boat shoes. After that, he roamed around Fairview Center Mall and tried to sell our products. First, he introduced himself and told them that he was from Ateneo. After doing this to 20 people, our group mate then changed his attire and wore pambahay clothes (slippers, shorts, and loose t-shirt). He did the same experiment but instead of saying that he was from Ateneo, he said that he was from San Andres National High School, a school that our group made up.

3. What were the different reactions of the people observed? 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?

For the first part of the experiment where our group mate dressed as an Atenean, 11 out of 20 people bought from our group mate. We observed different reactions from different people. One of them asked our group mate, “Bakit kailangan mo pa magbenta? Mayayaman mga taga Ateneo diba?” Three of the people approached didn’t want to buy at first but after our group mate showed them his ID, they bought our products. However, we also got negative responses from people. An old lady around 40 years old didn’t acknowledge the presence of our group mate and looked away. Another man didn’t stop to listen to our group mate and walked as if he was in a hurry.

The next part of the experiment, our group mate dressed in pambahay clothes. Compared to the first part of the experiment, less people bought from him. Only 8 out of 20 people bought our products. 3 of those 8 bought only after our group mate said “Sige na po. Kahit isa lang po mura na po yan.” 5 of them actually straight up said no or walked as if no one was talking to them.

More people bought from us when our group mate dressed up like an Atenean and showed his ID maybe because people found it easier to trust people from known schools than schools they didn’t know. Out of the 20 people in the first part of the experiment, only one of them didn’t know where Ateneo was.

To summarize the results:

• From Ateneo (Polo shirt, pants, boat shoes, Ateneo ID)
• 11/20 bought
• 3 bought after showing Ateneo ID
• People generally listened to him
• Only one person ignored our group mate completely
• Group mate didn’t have to ask again for them to buy
• One asked why our group mate had to sell as he is an Atenean and Ateneans are generally perceived as rich
• People knew the school
  
• From San Andres National High School (slippers, shorts, loose t-shirt)
• 8/11 bought
• 3 bought after asking again
• 5 ignored our group mate completely
• People generally didn’t listen when our group mate was talking
• People knew nothing about the school

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)?

In this experiment, the perception of people to students from two different schools, Ateneo and San Andres National High School, was observed. The two sociological themes that were observed in this experiment were social class and stereotypes.

Social Class

The social class of each school in the experiment was represented by the clothes the experimenter wore. To represent the Ateneo, the experimenter wore presentable and decent clothes (polo shirt, pants, and boat shoes). On the other hand, to represent a random school that no one knows about, the experimenter wore pambahay clothes (Shorts, slippers, and loose t-shirt). Our group wanted to know how people would treat other people based on where they studied. Based on our observations during the experiment, more people treated Ateneans better than someone from a random school. Generally, people were more willing to listen and to buy from an Ateneo student than from a student from San Andres National High School. This may be because of how much more people trust those from the upper class than those from the lower class.

Stereotypes

With regards to stereotypes, buyer preference seems to have been influenced by the school’s reputation. With that said, given Ateneo’s prestigious background, students from the University may have the attached connotation that the student’s there are more reliable, trustworthy and the like. However, as seen by the reactions of the other buyers, students from Ateneo may also be perceived as snobs and rich kids, as evidenced by their shocked expression once knowing we were from Ateneo and selling banana chips and cookies. Incidentally, regardless of the negative perception they have, it can still be surmised that given the total amount of banana chips and cookies sold by the Ateneo student, in contrast to the San Andres National High School student—the rich and poor stereotype, still remains a huge factor when it comes to how people perceive other people.

5. How did you feel when you did this experiment? How does it feel to deviate from the norms? Were you hesitant to do this activity?

Before doing the experiment proper, our group was very hesitant to do the activity because selling banana chips and cookies isn’t something that we would normally do. There were also a lot of reservations in our part due to the fact that doing this experiment would mean a violation to a specific norm. Our group mate said the he felt embarrassed when he was selling the delicacies because of the possibility of being rejected and getting rude responses from other people. Purposely deviating from a norm feels very frightening at first, but as the experiment goes on it is very interesting and important to know how things, as simple as school and appearance, could affect a person’s perception and treatment to others.

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

The activity was only limited to people who were at the Fairview Center Mall and Ever Gotesco Food Court on a holiday. Results could be different if we were able to do the experiment on a different location like SM North Edsa or Trinoma, which are obviously bigger and more crowded. However, these malls have rules that do not allow any forms of solicitation within the mall’s premises. These regulations and requirements could be seen as a formal control by malls to avoid deviance to their norms; such as selling in pambahay clothes. Also, bigger malls have a more diverse crowd in terms of their social class. Diversity could be a big factor in selling the products because there is a bigger chance of finding a buyer from the same social class. We believe that people would tend to buy from someone from the same social class than from someone from another social class.