Recommended
More Related Content
Similar to Stranger interaction
Similar to Stranger interaction (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (17)
Stranger interaction
- 1. By: Shawn Vecellio, Michelle Newman, and Eloy Sanchez
- 3. recognizing the other person’s presence but not expecting a large gesture in return, while also recognizing that there is no hostile intention between either party -sociologist -73rd President of the Sociological Association -Major figure in the symbolic interaction perspective
- 4. “… a stranger is greeted in public with a hello and a smile, he or she will reciprocate the exact same gesture with a hello and a smile if eye contact is made”
- 7. -strangers interpret interaction as a positive occurrence -willing to reciprocate when the other person is friendly and engaging -focused on interaction order -depicting what caused strangers to only interact with other strangers -social class, age, race, gender, social pressure -interaction may be based on sharing common features
- 8. -38 undergraduate couples who dated for at least three months -interacted with either their partner or opposite sex stranger for four minutes -harder to impress a stranger than their partner FIRST STUDY SECOND STUDY-23 couples to interact for five minutes -half the couples had to try to make a good impression, other half act normal -couples who had to work felt better Interaction can be based on mood
- 10. + 100 participants Florida Louisian a Texas Missouri = Variables: Date, time of day, weather, location, gender
- 12. Go to a public location of your choosing Walk past a stranger smiling, say hello, give direct eye contact Note the response in detail from the stranger in the journal Separate results into different categories
- 13. Reciprocated hello and smile when eye contact was made Reciprocated hello and smile when eye contact was not made Only responded with one of the gestures such as just a hello or smile No response
- 15. 42% 17% 32% 9% Stranger Interaction Reciprocated hello and smile when eye contact was made Reciprocated hello and smile when eye contact was not made Only responded with one of the gestures such as just a hello or smile No response
- 17. strangers are more likely to engage if they feel they have something in common or feel they are being welcomed in a friendly and inviting manner …allows someone to feel that they are special because someone took the time to acknowledge them, similar to Dunn’s study on the various couples
- 18. -understanding the relationship between strangers in public and how one simple change, such as making eye contact, can make a world of difference in the way people interact with one another -history of social interaction -expanding the variables and testing more subjects or creating a different location venue
Editor's Notes
- To live in this world is to constantly be surrounded in the presence of strangers. Passing someone on a busy street or sitting next to someone on a bus without knowing who they are or acknowledging their presence is a habit that America has become accustomed to. The world often lives in an auto pilot zone where the brief encounters with others often go unnoticed or unrecognized, and it is so often consumed by the hustle and bustle of daily routine that a polite gesture is frequently returned as silence or a short stare.
- According to Erving Goffman, a well-known sociologist, Americans often reveal civil inattention, which is recognizing the other person’s presence but not expecting a large gesture in return, while also recognizing that there is no hostile intention between either party (Universiteit Gent). While Erving Goffman has studied the interaction between strangers for years, many sociologists, psychologists, and other researchers have been looking for centuries into what makes a stranger reply to a common gesture, and how their reaction can dictate the initiator’s mood.
- From the study conducted and reviewed in this paper, research was completed to prove that if a stranger is greeted in public with a hello and a smile, then he or she will reciprocate the exact same gesture with a hello and a smile only if eye contact is made.
- It was decided to conduct the study titled Stranger Interaction because of the relationship between people in public, particularly those who did not know one another. It was noticed on a personal level and an observer level that, because so many gestures go unnoticed, it was time to find out what certain gesture made a stranger react and respond. The level of intrigue in this study is the same that other researchers have felt when researching this topic such as Kio Stark, Erving Goffman, Evolution Psychologists, Sociologists, and the American Psychological Association. Between all of these sources, it is interesting to see how they each viewed social interaction based on their various studies.
- Kio Stark, a professor and researcher from NYU, conducted an analysis on how strangers interpret interaction from one another. Stark found that strangers interpret interaction as a positive occurrence and are willing to reciprocate when the person initiating is friendly and engaging. When the initiator is not engaging, the other party is prone to not take their gesture seriously and pass it off as just a simple courtesy, and not a genuine attempt (Stark). Erving Goffman, the 73rd American Sociological Associate President, was one of the most influential theoretical sources for information on interaction. Goffman’s main focus for quite some time was related to interaction order, which applies directly to the study conducted and discussed later in the paper. Interaction order, to Goffman, was depicting what caused strangers to only interact with certain other strangers. He wondered if it had to do with social class, age, race, gender, or if it had to deal with social pressure and only belonging to certain groups (Universiteit Gent). After studying people during daily routines for years, Goffman came up with the conclusion that interaction must be justified by sharing some common features and only then would a conversation be initiated.
- The American Psychological Association spoke about Elizabeth Dunn, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia. Dunn conducted a study with 38 undergraduate heterosexual couples who had dated for at least three months. They interacted with either their partner or an opposite sex stranger for four minutes and they were allowed to talk about whatever they chose. Half of the people predicted how they would feel immediately before and after interacting with either their partner or strangers and half of them rated their actual emotions. Results showed that it was harder to make a positive impression on a stranger than their partner, and it made the participants try harder with the stranger and created an overall sense of well-being. Researchers for that study then went on to get 23 more couples and had them interact with each other for five minutes. Researchers had half of the couples try to make a good impression on their partners as if they had just started dating and the other half had to just act normal and have a normal conversation. Couples who had to work to make an impression felt better than the participants who just had to act normal. This study intertwines with the study discussed later in the presentation because interaction can be based off of mood. The individuals who felt better after interacting with strangers were more likely to interact with others later on, while the people whose mood was shifted because of the lack of response from the stranger made it harder for them to interact in the future.
- Over the past two exact weeks, a study was conducted throughout four states documenting a variety of strangers and how they responded to direct interaction with one another. The method to this study was surveying 20 people in four different states for a total of 100 people and documenting the responses against the gesture provided to them. The first step in the study was picking a location. For the purpose of expanding the study into different areas of the United States, the four states chosen were Florida, Louisiana, Texas, and Missouri. Once the locations had been chosen, it was time to come up with a variety of environmental and numerical variables that the stranger would be surveyed against. The variables selected for the study were date, time of day, weather, location, and gender. An extra section was added into the notes to provide detailed documentation on what acknowledgement took place and what reaction was received from the participant.
- These specific variables were chosen for many reasons. While the date was just for our records, the time of day mattered because it has been said that people could more tired in the mornings, therefore more unwilling to respond. It has always been thought that people are at their best in the middle towards end of the day, and it was important to document this to see if that had any influence. The weather was similar to the time of day because of gloomy weather versus the sunny weather and people’s moods. For some of us, gloomy weather doesn’t affect our moods but studies have shown in the past that moods decrease with the weather. The location and gender were to have as our reference, just in case the statistics turned up different than thought to see if they had any influence on the hypothesis or findings at the end.
- Once the variables are in place, it was time to start the survey. The first step is to pick a location. Choose somewhere where there is a variety of people such as wealthy, middle class and so on in order to prevent sampling bias, and to be sure you get an idea of all kinds of people and their reactions. The next step to take in completing this study is to walk by a stranger, in public, and give a smile, say hello, and give direct eye contact only to half of the participants. It is important to do these three gestures together only half of the time because, as the hypothesis is trying to prove, it is vital to understand if eye contact truly makes the difference on whether or not the stranger reciprocates the gestures. Once the gesture has been received back from the stranger, document exactly what took place. Documenting more information than needed is beneficial to help when determining the statistics and conclusion of the study. After the 100 strangers have been surveyed, compile all information into different categories.
- For this study, the categories used were: number of people who gave back a hello and smile when eye contact was made, number of people who gave back a hello and smile when eye contact was not made, number of people who only gave back one of the gestures such as just a hello or just a smile, and number of people who did not respond in general. Make sure all categories are represented on the results chart to represent accurate non-bias data. These four categories cover the entire basis of the study because you can see if eye contact made a difference in getting a reaction back, which would prove or disprove the hypothesis. Using something similar to the chart in the results slide, it is easy to distinctly see how many people fit into each category out of the 100 participants.
- The study conducted shows that, out of 100 participants, 42 responded with the exact same gesture initiated only if eye contact was made. 32 participants only responded with one of the gestures, 17 responded with both when eye contact was not made, while 9 did not respond at all. The hypothesis has now been proven to be accurate, and proves that people are more likely to respond to a gesture of a hello and a smile only if eye contact is made first. It turned out that the variables such as weather, time of day, location and gender did not matter as much as whether or not the initiator gave eye contact. It was much more prevalent that, even on a cloudy, dreary day, if a stranger felt acknowledged, uplifted, and engaged they are more likely to respond to the gesture in full regardless of the other variables.
- Our results compared quite closely to other studies from researches listed at the beginning of the presentation. One of the main themes throughout each of the other researcher’s studies was that strangers are more likely to engage if they feel they have something in common or feel they are being welcomed in a friendly and inviting manner. Giving eye contact to the participants let them know that they were being engaged honestly and directly. This allows someone to feel that they are special because someone took the time to acknowledge them, similar to Dunn’s study on the various couples and levels of engagement. The couples who were engaged were more likely to respond better than those that were treated as a side note or afterthought. When the strangers were encountered in the Stranger Interaction study with anything less than eye contact, and just the hello and smile, they may have felt like receiving those gestures was a common courtesy which resulted in little to no response.
- Our study stayed right in line with what sociologists and psychologists have been saying for years about interaction between strangers. The team conducting the study learned those findings mentioned in the discussion, as well as understanding the relationship between strangers in public and how one simple change, such as making eye contact, can make a world of difference in the way people interact with one another. The team also learned a lot about the history of social interaction, which really helped when looking into the results of the survey. For the next study, the team plans on taking what was learned and attributing that to expanding the variables and possibly either testing more subjects or creating a different location venue.