Social Experiments:

Social Experiment- Random Awards
Mark H., Danielle N., Freddy G., Mariah S., Brandon W., Jacob W.

• Research Question: How might different demographics react and respond to randomly drawing attention to them for things that are ordinary/norms to them or something they cannot change? This experiment was intended to sate our curiosity under these circumstances.
• Operation: Approached random strangers in Liberty Station, and asked them to give us their name for an award. Some of the awards required an action to be made (Ex. Participate in a dance). Variables- What the award was for, gender, age, environment, social status, race, personality, and how their day had been going. One way to limit some of these variables would have been to use the same award and give it many more people so we could get a more accurate pool and see how people would react, and if we had gone to different locations and used a larger demographic.
o Ex. “Doing something nice for someone” “Wearing a shirt today” “Making a good first impression” “Having and aesthetically pleasing face” “participating in a dance” “Seeming like you are very busy” “Being the friendliest person” “Having awesome teeth” “Being the prettiest person in the last five minutes”.
• Hypothesis: Most individuals would probably be skeptical of being approached by a group of teenagers requesting their name for a random award. However, it is unlikely that many people would turn down an award that is complimenting them and drawing attention to something they may feel was insignificant. It is human nature to want to be accepted and appreciated because of group survival dependencies. Women may also be more apt to accept the awards because of societal pressures for being a certain way (ex. Being pretty) and the award would in some way be reassuring to them. Many of the people we approach may be caught so off guard that they don’t know how to react other than just accepting the award but being weary of giving their name.
• Research Design: We used a sample of the population that perhaps wasn’t an accurate job of representing how just anyone would react to our approach. However, the sample we took from Liberty Station is appropriate for most working San Diegans.
• Findings: Our hypothesis was correct in that gender played a role in reactions of our subjects. Not only were men more reluctant to accept the awards but the only time we were rejected was by two men. All the women we approached seemed confused and uncertain but still took the awards willingly. Of the nine people we presented awards to only two turned them down. Five of the awards were ultimately given to men and four were given to women. Even after one woman saw a man turn down an award for “An aesthetically pleasing face” she took the award and didn’t seem to be phased at all. The awards that were given for things like “wearing a shirt” “seeming busy” and “having awesome teeth” the people seemed more excited when they received them.
• Summary: People enjoy having attention drawn to them in ways that compliment themselves. It is instinctual to wish to be successful by societal standards, therefore being awarded for something random and ridiculous was in a lot of ways reassuring.