Mall Social Experiment
We chose to conduct our social experiment at the Arizona Mills Outlet Shopping Center. Arizona Mills is located in Tempe, Arizona. Our experiment was conducted from 4:00 pm to 7:00. We chose this time frame to compare times of less traffic to the times after shoppers get off work. During the experiment the amount of shoppers increased from 1 shopper passing our position per minute to 3 shoppers passing per minute. The increase in shoppers happened close to 6:00 pm. We observed a mixture of social statuses to include white, hispanic, middle eastern, and black people. The gender variance was close with males usually being accompanied by a female. However, those that walked alone were mostly female. The shoppers walked comfortably though the Mall
…show more content…
We started by observing the parking area of the mall. Two social scientist were posted half into the parking lot and the other social scientist posted by the entrance of the mall to observe the trash cans. For the hour that we observed shoppers entering the mall, we only observed a 10 people had trash to discard at any point. Most of the people used the trash cans if they were close to the them. There was only one person that dropped trash on the ground as they were still among the parking spaces. We found that most of the people that had trash actually used the trash cans and did not litter. We moved into the mall to observe the normal social behavior of discarding trash indoors. Our social scientists split up to observe trash cans from a distance. We wanted to see if distance from a trash can made a difference whether shoppers littered or used the trash cans. We found that every shopper observed used the trash cans in the mall. We found that it is the norm to use the provided trash cans in or around the mall. We also felt that people might be more likely to break this norm if the distance to a trash can is to far in their mind or if nobody is watching. But, we only saw the norm violation in the parking lot. Our group decided to perform our experiment inside the mall because it appeared that littering inside the mall would be the greater violation. We would violate the social norm of not littering by casually
We started by observing the parking area of the mall. Two social scientist were posted half into the parking lot and the other social scientist posted by the entrance of the mall to observe the trash cans. For the hour that we observed shoppers entering the mall, we only observed a 10 people had trash to discard at any point. Most of the people used the trash cans if they were close to the them. There was only one person that dropped trash on the ground as they were still among the parking spaces. We found that most of the people that had trash actually used the trash cans and did not litter. We moved into the mall to observe the normal social behavior of discarding trash indoors. Our social scientists split up to observe trash cans from a distance. We wanted to see if distance from a trash can made a difference whether shoppers littered or used the trash cans. We found that every shopper observed used the trash cans in the mall. We found that it is the norm to use the provided trash cans in or around the mall. We also felt that people might be more likely to break this norm if the distance to a trash can is to far in their mind or if nobody is watching. But, we only saw the norm violation in the parking lot. Our group decided to perform our experiment inside the mall because it appeared that littering inside the mall would be the greater violation. We would violate the social norm of not littering by casually