Normally when we have meals, we tend to grab knives and forks and find some seats to eat the enjoyable meals. Will you sit on the floor and have your meal when there are several seats available? I bet you won’t. Our group did our experiment of “how people will react when they see a person sitting on the floor eating by hand” on Monday. I took the notes and I would like to share what I had observed with you. (Mainly I observe facial expressions)
We did our experiment at the lunch area in Student Activity Center, where there were always plenty of people passing by. Jacey and I were the people who were responsible for observing people and taking notes, whereas Yesenia was responsible for doing the distractions.
At first we picked a table near Yesenia, who sat on the floor in the middle of the tables. She carried her lunch box and began eating by hand. After a minute or so, several guys started to look at her as they were saying, “She’s crazy”. Minutes passed and people gradually noticed what Yesenia was doing. Some of them were confused, some of them had several glances, but most of them just ignored. I guess maybe she was sitting at a place where people would not notice if they were not finding any seats.
So Yesenia decided to change to another place to continue the experiment. This time she still sat near our table but on the path where many people would pass by. After she sat down, she became more noticeable than before. On the other hand, Jacey joined Yesenia to sit on the floor and to begin her lunch. There were still people confused about what they were doing, but the amount of people who were looking back (I mean opposite to their original walking directions) increased. A few people who were lining up in queues and waiting for their turns to order food looked back at the two girls. Two guys in a queue not only looked back but also talking about the girls and occasionally paid attentions to the girls. The funniest thing I saw was that two staff who worked at T’s Food (pseudonym) sticked out their heads and tried to figure out what was happening.
After about 10 minutes, it was 12:00 pm. Many students flushed into the lunch area after class to buy their lunch at that time. It’s worth mentioning that where Yesenia and Jacey were sitting was close to the mergence of two entrances for people to enter and line up. Soon the two queues were lengthening and those who wanted to go from the right side of the hall to the left side had to go pass this narrow space. After this change, people started to look at the two girls for a longer time. People had to detour; they had to make another ways to walk to the other side of the hall. It’s also important that the amount of people who noticed the girls increased dramatically.
I recall the experience of my first day of sociology class that Professor Fulton asked us to introduce ourselves to others. Normally we started from the people that sat near us, then the people close to our seats. Not until the professor asked us to meet more people did we stand up and walked to another places. I see the similarities between my experience and observation that people won’t care about other (not so relevant) issues if those issues are not related to them. It’s amazing.
It’s also quite worth mentioning that most people’s reactions were watching and ignorance. In my opinion, this is a reflection of Goffman’s theory of impression management. Apparently the ignorance is a kind of studied nonobservance (civil inattention). People pay civil inattention to give others the impression of politeness, self-discipline, and respect to others that they want to be considered to leave. I guess they do not want to be considered as "people who interrupt others" or "people that are picky to others". Also, the confused or curious looks are the “wrong faces” that do not support the girls’ performances. They may have the implications to remind the girls to act normally and correct the girls' behaviors.
In all, our performances are established on the social base. Onto the social base and into our performances exist countless sociological principles. That’s why we broke a norm and figured out why people react in different ways based on sociological perspective.
Ellen Chen
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