Before
I chose to find people around my dorm, I figured people would be coming and going and that would be a good spot for this. As the assignment stated, I approached people who were walking with purpose and one individual on the phone.To start the conversation I just asked if they would have a minute for a quick question. The story I chose to go with was that I was doing a social experiment. I just wanted to see if they would like a dollar or not. I figured I would give away most of the dollars.
Recordings
After
I was surprised that, like the recordings show, most people didn't take the dollar. They seemed to think it was weird/rude and possibly did not see me as trustworthy, considering one girl asked what I did to it. The second to last person did take the dollar, but he was hesitant about it. I thought I would get that reaction from most people, because I thought people would like to get the dollar. It is clear though, that either my strategy was poor, or that the dollar wasn't worth enough to compensate for the strangeness of the interaction.
I want to commend you on your method. Although you were not successful, you did something that people said I should have done, which was lead off with "can I ask you a question?" To put the impact of this into context, most people would not even stop walking or their conversations to hear me out, even though I was thrusting a dollar at them. So although you felt you were not successful, there were things that you were dong well that did work to some extent.
ReplyDeleteI couldn't agree more with you.
ReplyDeleteI also believe this was an assignment that truly wasn't necessary. A lot of us have trouble approaching people like this, much less being rude and recording them without asking them, invading their personal space etc.
If youd like, you can check out my post at http://www.finityphotos.com/blog/2016/2/21/free-money