You Can’t Sit With Us: A Breaching Experiment on the Norm of Personal Space
The experiment violated the norm of personal space in public places. When a person or a group of people go to mall, restaurant, park, or any public place, they usually claim a space as their own and strangers do not sit with them. Most of the time, when there is space, people prefer to sit as far away from a table that is taken. A table set for 5 people could be occupied by just one person, but no one would sit in the other chairs because it is assumed that the whole table is taken by that person even though he/she is alone. The concept of personal space is something that is embedded in people, especially in our country where the culture is quite conservative and individualistic. People prefer to have a certain distance between them and other strangers. The invasion of personal space, especially by a complete stranger, is usually seen as weird and unacceptable, which could lead some people to get mad.
The experiment was set to be done in public crowded places such as restaurants or open spaces where people tend to find a spot and make it their personal space. For example, in a public place such as a fastfood chain, despite having several tables and several strangers all around, a table one would sit in would become his/her personal space. The researchers conducted the experiment in UP Town Center, specifically in Jollibee, McDonald’s, Pancake House, open garden near the new mall (phase one and two), and the event grounds. The venues were chosen at random. It was done last February 27, 2017 around 4 in the afternoon until 6 in the evening.
The objective of the experiment was to see the reactions of people when their personal spaces are invaded by other strangers. The researchers expected or hypothesized that the people whom the experiment was conducted on would feel nervous, wary, or even awkward once they are put in that situation. In order to “invade” the personal spaces on people for the experiment, what the researchers did was to go to public places wherein people could create personal spaces for themselves.
The experiment was done 6 times. Thrice to people alone, twice to pairs, and once to a group. The people were chosen at random by the researchers to rule out factors that may affect the experiment. There was no certain criteria in choosing who to conduct the experiment on. In addition, only one person or group of people in the certain area was chosen in order to remove the factor that the others in the same area may have been watching and know how the experiment goes, thus defeating its objective.
Since the objective of the experiment was to see the reactions of people when their personal spaces were invaded by strangers, the experiment involved the researchers sitting with a random stranger or strangers in either a table or open space. The researchers would first ask if they could sit with them, this is the act of invading personal space, and then try to make small talk or ask anything random in order to keep the conversation alive. This further “invades” the personal space of the person the researchers are conducting the experiment on. However, when the people are hesitant or starting to get uncomfortable, the researcher will automatically end the experiment and debrief the person or group about the social experiment. The people were debriefed by saying that they are part of an experiment, there are cameras recording what was happening, and were asked if it would be okay to use the footage.
The experiment was recorded through three different ways. The researchers used a GoPro camera and a DSLR camera. Two cameras were used to get two different perspectives of the experiment being done. Since the two cameras would not be capable of capturing the conversations of the people doing the experiment, a phone was brought by the researchers during the experiment to record the conversations that would occur.
Different people with varying genders and from a wide age range. Some of the approached people were alone and some were also with another person or a group of people. The experiment was conducted by researchers either alone or in pairs. After conducting each, observations were written down and among all the observations there were somewhat similar reactions and significantly extreme reactions as well.
The first observation was done inside Jollibee. The researcher approached a lady who was seated alone while she was going through some papers. The researcher asked the lady if she could share her table with him. Right when the researcher approached the lady, she bent backwards and moved all her stuff away from the researcher and put them on the other side of the table. The lady was surprised, but tried to act like she was normal that is why she just nodded and continued to check her papers. When the researcher tried to ask the lady a few questions like how her day went and what she was checking, the lady just kept nodding and continued to check her papers. The lady seemed scared and it seemed like the she thought that it was some kind of modus opperandi that is why she was very reluctant in starting a conversation.
The second time the experiment was conducted was on two seemingly queer men seated side by side in McDonald’s at UP Town Center. They were approached by one of the researchers. She started the conversation by asking, “Did you have the sundaes?”, since there were 2 sundaes on their table. One of them replied by saying, “Yes” without looking at the researcher, while the other one continued to write on a piece of paper. The researcher made a follow up question by asking if the sundaes were good, and one of the men replied “yes”, without looking at the researcher again. The researcher then asked, “can I sit here?”, which was a seat across the two men, and he instantly replied, “why?” in a seemingly annoyed manner. The researcher debriefed the two men about the social experiment, then gave a stern look. A few minutes after the experiment was done, one of them ran after the researchers and asked them about the experiment and why they were the researchers were recording them on video, despite being debriefed. The man was mad while talking to the researchers. He pointed his pencil at the researchers as he was talking, which caught the attention of the people around McDonald’s.
On the third time, while two researchers were approaching a group of teenagers, they made sure that they were able to hear what we were talking about. The researchers used the size of UPTC as a topic of conversation between them and used it as an icebreaker with the group of teenagers. The researchers then tried to keep the conversation alive by saying how tired they were, asking the only guy from the group who acknowledged the researchers where they came from. Although he would reply to the questions of the researchers, he would not make the effort to keep the conversation alive and he would turn his back on us after answering the questions. It was very one-sided. The group did not talk to the researchers and they just focused on what they were doing. The researchers then found out that they were rehearsing for something which could be a factor as to why they were not as responsive. After debriefing the guy, the other teenagers started to acknowledge the researchers.
After observing a set of teenagers, the group decided to approach an old lady sitting alone. The researcher noticed that the old lady saw that she was being approached, but she did not fuss nor moved away. When the researcher was near her she said, “Magandang hapon po, puwede po bang maki-upo rito?” and she just smiled and nodded. The researcher and the lady stayed quiet for over a few seconds, and she still did not show any sign of discomfort. The researcher eventually asked if she was waiting for anyone. She was just smiling and said that she was. “Anak niyo po?” the researcher asked, “no” she said quite calmly while looking towards the direction of what the researcher would assume was where her relative was coming from. She did not show any sign of discomfort. The researcher then debriefed her and explained that this was only part of the experiment for the Sociology and Anthropology class, and that she was being filmed. She was asked if it was okay for her to be featured on the video, she simply smiled, nodded and wished the group good luck.
The fifth time the experiment was conducted was on a young teenage girl sitting alone on one Kitkat bench in event grounds at the UP Town Center mall. She was approached casually by one researcher. The researcher asked if she could sit with her and she only nodded to say yes. The researcher proceeded to ask more questions like, “may hinihintay ka ba rito?”, and “anong ginagawa mo rito?” and the girl only answered using only one-word answers such as, “wala”, and “wifi”. She was starting to look nervous when the researcher started asking questions, and she was not looking up from her phone. She seemed like she was already feeling uncomfortable with the situation. When the researcher debriefed her about the experiment, she only nodded as a response again.
The experiment was last conducted on two men sitting outside one of Pancake House’s tables. Initially, they seemed busy and did not want to talk to anyone. Two researchers approached them and first asked if they could join them. Their first responses were just nods, though as the researchers asked questions, they were really calm and were into having small talk. The conversation was on restaurants and where it would be good to eat. One of the men even asked what the researchers were craving for and then suggested a list of restaurants that, according to him, were good places to eat. The other man was just agreeing and nodding while the other was doing all the talking. They were not awkward and were really nice to the researchers. After being debriefed, they just smiled at the researchers.
Some other factors to the way the different people reacted could be their age. The middle age/adults tend to be the most skeptical about the whole thing. At their age, they regard personal space as most sacred. In the case of the two seemingly queer men, they probably felt like they were being attacked or violated because one of them got mad and most likely did not understand the situation even though it was explained to them. The elderly and the young girl/group, on the other hand, took things more lightly. The elderly are usually very caring and so the response given by the old lady was very sweet and she even wished us good luck. Most elderly people tend to be more trusting of the youth, especially if they have children or grandchildren of their own. In the case of the younger people we performed our experiment on, most of them were not offended not were they completely welcoming either. With the teenage girl in the Kitkat bench, she just seemed very uninterested as seen in her single-worded answers. But after a while we started to sense that she was getting uncomfortable but did not do anything about it. Most teens do not know what to do when these things happen so the reaction was not as strong as those who are middle-aged or adults.
At first, the researchers felt hesitant in approaching the strangers and asking if they could join them in their tables. During the experiment, the researchers could not help but feel excited and nervous as they were waiting for the reactions of the strangers. It is considered a norm not to sit with people you do not know, therefore it felt very awkward to randomly sit with someone and ask them personal questions. It felt very nerve-racking to communicate with the strangers, because one would not know how they would react to you sitting with them and asking them personal questions. It was one thing to calmly approach them and ask if you could join them, but it was another to stay there and act normal.
The researchers all felt hesitant at first. They did not know who to approach, and how they would approach them. The researchers also had no idea on how to converse with the strangers because they were trying to gauge their reactions. Despite being hesitant to deviate this norm, the researchers still pushed through with it because it was interesting to see their reactions.
Several experiments were done and all of them yielded different results. There were instances when the strangers got angry but there were also some wherein the strangers made a conversation and seemed to enjoy the researcher’s company. The researchers noticed that the age, gender, and presence of peers affected how the strangers acted. When one of the researchers approached a female senior citizen, she gladly allowed one of the researchers to sit with her. The senior citizen seemed to have a very jolly mood and was happy to talk to people. Also, when two of the researchers approached a group of teenage kids hanging out in the mall, the people in the group talked to researchers without hesitation and fear. The group of teenage kids seemed to be more confident and safe to talk to the researchers because their friends were there to help them if anything bad would have happened. However, there was also an instance when the stranger got angry at the researcher. In McDonald’s, one of the researchers was not permitted by the strangers to sit with them. Moreover, the strangers went after the researchers because they saw cameras and voice recorders. Different people had different reactions towards our group and our actions. We would all have our own opinions as to how these strangers would react to us including them in our experiment but their reactions would always be different from what we expected it to be. This just shows how different people are from each other. We all have our own specific way of showing how we want other people to respect our personal space and this was evident in the experiment.
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