But Stolen is More IInteresting

 

Psychologists are a judgmental lot. Which leads to their behavioral studies experiments being error-ridden. I've often noticed this, but now I'm reading a compendium of such poorly thought out experiments.

Not that the psychologist/author realizes the errors. He's a good natured fellow, Richard Wiseman, Ph.D., who collected some quirky information from other psychologists.

For instance, some behavioral scientists are investigating spoons missing from cafeterias in relation to anti-social behavior. I can tell you from experience where most of the missing dinnerware ends up. In the garbage. And not necessarily on purpose.

I was working at a nice restaurant when I heard about an enterprising street denizen who had found numerous pieces of dinnerware in a dumpster. He took them to the restaurant that owned the dumpster, and got paid for retrieving them. He then checked other dumpsters at other restaurants. Word soon got out among restauranteurs that most of the dinnerware that was supposedly stolen was actually just being scraped off dirty dinner plates with the leftovers. Employees were harangued. Which probably led to fewer accidental throw aways and more intentional ones.

Another experiment involved keeping track of the number of items that were taken through the ten item or less line at the supermarket. Labeled as anti-social behavior before the experiment began, real life explanations were ignored.

For instance, how many of those anti-social people simply didn't see the sign? I could have been one of them because I don't pay much attention to my surroundings. Until Jerry was once with me and pointed to the sign, I didn't even know there was such a line. Does that make me anti-social or oblivious? I prefer to think the latter.

The third example I also would have failed at. It involved whether or not people come to a complete stop at a stop sign. I wouldn't have thought much about this before I learned that 'complete stop' means vehicle doesn't move for two seconds. I always stop for exactly the length of time necessary to see that it is safe to continue. Call me a miscreant.

Another experiment involved an actor pretending to be very ill in the middle of a crowd, then pleading for help from by-standers. I won't bother going through the results because I believe that just setting up an this experiment was the act of anti-social behavior.

And with that finger wag at behavioral scientists, I will get back to reading the book.

Nancy Sherer

 

 


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