Social Norms

[kingsrings]

You also have to pick a good location to pull these 'social norm' things. For instance, if you did any of these stunts in the downtown area of my town, no one would even bat an eye at you. There is quite a large bum population there, and that crazy stuff goes on all the time. It would just be assumed that you were another part of that population.

[MelJill]

I think it depends on what it is. I find most practical jokes and pranks unamusing, unless it's something really innocent. I don't think that it's funny to do something to someone that will cause them any kind of negative emotion, such as fear, anger, hurt, etc., no matter what. And one always has to be careful when doing these 'social norm' experiments to people. You never know when you might run into someone who doesn't find it at all amusing, no matter what it is, and you don't know what their reaction might be.

For me, all pranks and practical jokes are unfunny and somewhere on the scale between mean and cruel (and occasionally even veering into sadistic), and these 'social norm' experiments seem to be just another variation of that behavior.

I guess I'm one of the ones who 'doesn't find it at all amusing, no matter what it is', and I don't think I'm alone in the world, even if I am alone in this thread, in thinking that way.

[madmusician]

I respect your belief. However, I would like to know what is unfunny about observing and recording people's reactions to unusual situations? That was the point of the experiment after all.

[Julia Mercer]

Well I've never been good at social norms anyway, but I have some fun suggestions!


Put makeup on only half of your face

That one reminds me of the movie The Other Sister, when Juliette Lewis's character Carla got her makeup done at a mall, and they only did one half, saying they charge for the second half.

Jules

[goblue2539]

I guess I'm one of the ones who 'doesn't find it at all amusing, no matter what it is', and I don't think I'm alone in the world, even if I am alone in this thread, in thinking that way.

Of course you're not all alone in the world!  You may only be alone in this thread because the people who agree with you haven't gotten online yet.  And even at that I'm not sure you're totally alone.  Just because I understand the reasoning behind the social experiments doesn't always make me comfortable with them.  I just think that the OP and her boyfriend managed to do assigned work without actually harming anyone, although they were forced to make people uncomfortable with the very nature of the assignment.  In some cases, that may be the best we can hope for.

And, whether I like it or not, psychology is starting to look at sociology research, so I may have to actually perform some of these experiments.  I hope if I do I can be as creative and considerate as the OP tried to be.   

[MelJill]

I respect your belief. However, I would like to know what is unfunny about observing and recording people's reactions to unusual situations? That was the point of the experiment after all.

I think it is unethical to use other people without their prior informed consent or an explanation of what was going on afterwards.

I also do not see any beneficial outcome that outweighs the distress that you (may) cause other people by using them in this manner.  Just what were you supposed to gain (other than laughs at other people's expense)?

I did earn 'pin money' during my college days by signing up for psych experiments--one could sign up for two a week and make a buck or two each time, so it's not experimenting w/ human subjects that I find objectionable ... of course, they'd sometimes give no more info than 'this experiment starts at such-and-such time on this date and will require three hours of your time' or a 'bait and switch' where the sign up said they were looking at x, but they were really looking at y ... but those all had very thorough debriefs at the end.

[kingsrings]

I think it depends on what it is. I find most practical jokes and pranks unamusing, unless it's something really innocent. I don't think that it's funny to do something to someone that will cause them any kind of negative emotion, such as fear, anger, hurt, etc., no matter what. And one always has to be careful when doing these 'social norm' experiments to people. You never know when you might run into someone who doesn't find it at all amusing, no matter what it is, and you don't know what their reaction might be.

For me, all pranks and practical jokes are unfunny and somewhere on the scale between mean and cruel (and occasionally even veering into sadistic), and these 'social norm' experiments seem to be just another variation of that behavior.

I guess I'm one of the ones who 'doesn't find it at all amusing, no matter what it is', and I don't think I'm alone in the world, even if I am alone in this thread, in thinking that way.

Of course you're not alone. People have varying differences and opinions about what is humrous and what is not, and some people don't have any sense of humor what so ever.

[Slartibartfast]

The point of this type of assignment is to find out *what* makes people uncomfortable - and that is a doorway to finding out *why* they're uncomfortable.  Really, what's wrong with eating a stranger's pie?  Sure, the OP might have had some weird contagious disease that could be communicated by eating her pie, but for everyone else in the restaurant, there's no real reason it should affect them.  But it does, because it's "just not done."  So even though it might make the people in the restaurant confused, it doesn't harm them, and it's educational for the students performing the experiment.

My ex-BF had a similar experiment, and he and his friends chose to eat a meal while sitting on the floor in the cafeteria.  Again, doesn't hurt anyone (except possibly germs from being on the floor), but other people in the cafeteria still were disturbed.

I find experiments like this fascinating.  One famous one involved having a researcher dressed up to look "official" at a store that had black-and-white checkerboard floor tiles, and telling people as they were coming in that the dark tiles had just been repainted so please only step on the white tiles.  People did it!  I think that particular researcher was studying how people do strange things when someone in authority tells them to.

If anyone's interested (just becuase this reminded me of another fascinating experiment), check out this video.  Count the number of times the students pass a basketball.

Highlight below once you have an answer:

Did you notice the guy in the gorilla suit?

[fklwmn]

If you are enjoying reading this thread as much as I am, you should check out Improv Everywhere. My favorite was the time warp in StarBucks, but they have done a lot of funny stuff.

http://www.improveverywhere.com/missions.php

[VorFemme]

I did two of those some twenty years ago.  I walked into a meeting (where there were smokers) while wearing a filter face mask (from a hardware store).  I got several odd looks - but since the boss didn't say anything to me, neither did anyone else.

The second experiment got more comments.  I was sitting in one of the other offices a couple of afternoons later - the First Shirt smoked, the retention NCO smoked, I (still) don't.  It was after work and we were *having an informal after work discussion* (aka "shooting the breeze").  I was a bit tired of the smoke levels - so I bummed a cigarette off of one of the guys to "numb" my sense of smell.

The secretary went by just as I blew a cloud...........the double-take he pulled made my report for the class MUCH more fun! 

That was an experiment I hadn't even planned out - but it was the one that I wrote up!

[madmusician]

As the person who started this post, I feel the need to clarify for all those who are being offended by the experiments that were done.

The experiments were done for scientific reasons only--the same reasons for which doctors conduct exploratory surgery to see what is wrong with a patient. These were done to explore what makes people uncomfortable and why it should. Eating a stranger's pie or talking to your imaginary friend in a restaurant is not unsafe, harmful to anyone, or traumatic for anyone involved. The experiments were conducted for a grade in a high school or college course; it was required of the students to perform an experiment.

While some experiments may have made people laugh, they were done for observational purposes. While you may not find it humorous, please try to understand that the experiments were conducted as an insight into human behavior.

Could someone please tell me what is unacceptable about doing a scientific experiment for school?

[Bethczar]

I guess I'm an incurable curmudgeon, but I don't find these sorts of things even moderately amusing.  (Then again, I also think that 'pranks' and 'practical jokes' are terrible.)

I agree with you, for the most part. While I'm not horrified by these stories, there is no way a teacher could get me to do them. I'd rather fail the course. I see no humor in going out of one's way to make other people's lives more difficult.

[madmusician]

Again, how did I make a waiter's life more difficult? I left him a very generous tip on a piece of pie. I was kind and courteous. Sure, it may have shocked him that someone else sat down to eat the pie, but how did it hurt the waiter?

[T'Mar of Vulcan]

People have varying differences and opinions about what is humrous and what is not, and some people don't have any sense of humor what so ever.

Whenever people say that someone has no sense of humour, I always think of this quote from Alien Nation: "I have a sense of humour. I just don't have YOUR sense of humour."

There are a lot of things I don't find funny that others do. For example, there's a guy here on local radio called WackHead who calls people (usually local celebrities, but not always) and tries to get them to freak out, then he plays the tapes on the air. So he'll call a celebrity and pretend to be a fan and start asking very personal or rude questions, etc., until the celebrity either figures out they've been had or slams the phone down. Most people think he's hilarious; I don't find him funny at all. But I'm not going to think that people who like him have no sense of humour. My mother doesn't find Monty Python funny; I walk around singing The Galaxy Song. But I don't accuse her of having no sense of humour, and she doesn't accuse me either.

Just because we don't find the same things funny doesn't mean the other person is attacking us. They just like something different. And it has to be asked: so what?

[bostonbetty]

I don't think you made your waiter's day difficult at all, imo. As a waitress, I can tell you that I would have got a good laugh out of it myself, then again I have a very dark sense of humor. And I think it's great thet you left him a generous tip, 'cause in reality he's there to make money and that's what he cares about.
 The way to make my life as a waitress more difficult is to demean me and treat me like a slave...then leave me a 10% tip.