At this point, I would say to the student that he has made an
interesting anecdotal observation and that he needs to verify his
observation first.
I like the idea of videotaping. First, the student could do a
simple count of how many people take glasses from the pile vs.
the tidy line. Next, comes the interesting question of what
percentage is "too much" or "odd" (5%? 10%? 25%? 50%?). Then he
could try looking for predictors (age, sex, height,...)
I don't like the current germ hypothesis because I don't follow
the argument that a pile of entangled glasses looks more
germ-free than a tidy row of glasses.
But, before he becomes entangled in competing hypotheses, he
needs to verify the initial observation.
Ken
---------------------------------------------------------------
Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [email protected]
Professor and Assistant Chairperson
Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu
Appalachian State University
Boone, NC 28608
USA
---------------------------------------------------------------
Annette Taylor wrote:
A student in my intro to psych class asked me this question, which I
think would have an answer someplace in social psych:
He works at SeaWorld, a large amusement park. He prefaced his question
by telling me that he fully understands that when people go to these
places they are not 'themselves' but rather some zombie-like shell of
themselves--they don't seem to show much thinking going on but rather
turn off for the day. Now this relates to the question because it is
more like automatic processing than thoughtful behavior that he is
interested in.
His job is outside a very large "show" that requires special glasses
(like 3D but not 3D). His job is to take a HUGE pile of these
glasses as people deposit them into a barrel, exiting the previous show,
and to disentangle the pile and lay them out neatly on a table so that
people going into the show can just grab a pair and go on in. The table
is a half round and the glasses are laid out in a semi-circle, about 3
deep, and then his tangled pile sits near the back, center. As a person
takes a pair of glasses his job is to disentangle a pair and place it
out on the perimeter for easy access. He emphasized that this is a VERY
large table, so that his tangled pile is quite far away. He said that a
person has to be at least 5'10" tall to reach over to his pile. But if
you are anticipating, well yes, he claims that about 50% of the people
would rather reach into the tangled pile to grab glasses, rather than
take the nicely laid out, easy access, disentangled and neatly folded
and placed glasses along the edge of the table.
He is just fascinated by this phenomenon but doesn't know where to begin
to explain it or even how to study it. Kudos to him for being curious.
He says he could study it if he could think of a task for it. His
employers are pretty flexible about things like that.
Any ideas on this list on what is going on? Any ideas on how to test the
hypothesis that that is indeed what is going on? For example, he could
make the tangled pile easier to access and the neatly folded glasses
less accessible. But what hypothesis would that be testing? Frankly, I
am also at a loss. I'm not surprised that people do something more
difficult than the easy thing, but again, I have no way to explain it.
I look forward to some help. Please don't make me go to that other list....
Annette
Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D.
Professor, Psychological Sciences
University of San Diego
5998 Alcala Park
San Diego, CA 92110
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
---
You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected].
To unsubscribe click here:
http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=5536
or send a blank email to
leave-5536-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
