It seemed like a really great way to see if you could earn the trust of people. I am suprsied that some people lied to you guys though... I'm sorry!! I'm also really impressed that no one took Libby's purse. It really shows that people are trustworthy, and that there are only a select few in our world who actually want to do harm. It's very encouraging!
Thanks so much for sharing this lab about trust. I think it's on the rise!
I really enjoyed watching this lab. On the one hand, it demonstrates that many people do have a basic trust in the people around them. With that said, however, I think there are two factors that it was impossible to control, but may have affected the validity of these findings as a public trust experiment. The first is that you were in a public place. People are much more likely to be trustworthy when others are around. I think this is essentially because, when there is a collection of people in a public place, people know that the law will be upheld, and so subsequently people fear less that it will be broken i opposition to their rights. When one is alone, there is no guarantee that the law will have any meaning, because there are no witnesses, and if a crime is committed it is simply one person's words against another's. The other uncontrolled factor was your appearance, which you spoke about both in this video and in class. I am sorry to say, Abby, but you just do not look at all menacing or sketchy. I am sure that most people recognized you as the nice, young student that you are. This does lead to the conclusion that the level of trust people have for other people is not only circumstantial (like what I have already talked about with the public setting versus the private setting), but it is also an individual assessment of the other person based upon physical characteristics. Your innocent appearance does make even more shocking the people who pretended not to have phones or ignored you. I wonder if this is a reflection of a basic lack of trust, or just an inconsideration for others - they didn't want to bother helping another. Both are bad, and represent the declining social capital in the US. Samantha Miller
This was such a great lab!!!
ReplyDeleteIt seemed like a really great way to see if you could earn the trust of people. I am suprsied that some people lied to you guys though... I'm sorry!! I'm also really impressed that no one took Libby's purse. It really shows that people are trustworthy, and that there are only a select few in our world who actually want to do harm. It's very encouraging!
Thanks so much for sharing this lab about trust. I think it's on the rise!
---Julia Boyes
I really enjoyed watching this lab. On the one hand, it demonstrates that many people do have a basic trust in the people around them. With that said, however, I think there are two factors that it was impossible to control, but may have affected the validity of these findings as a public trust experiment. The first is that you were in a public place. People are much more likely to be trustworthy when others are around. I think this is essentially because, when there is a collection of people in a public place, people know that the law will be upheld, and so subsequently people fear less that it will be broken i opposition to their rights. When one is alone, there is no guarantee that the law will have any meaning, because there are no witnesses, and if a crime is committed it is simply one person's words against another's. The other uncontrolled factor was your appearance, which you spoke about both in this video and in class. I am sorry to say, Abby, but you just do not look at all menacing or sketchy. I am sure that most people recognized you as the nice, young student that you are. This does lead to the conclusion that the level of trust people have for other people is not only circumstantial (like what I have already talked about with the public setting versus the private setting), but it is also an individual assessment of the other person based upon physical characteristics. Your innocent appearance does make even more shocking the people who pretended not to have phones or ignored you. I wonder if this is a reflection of a basic lack of trust, or just an inconsideration for others - they didn't want to bother helping another. Both are bad, and represent the declining social capital in the US.
ReplyDeleteSamantha Miller