Social experiments of the non-sinister kind

A great thing about having an interest in the science of human behaviour is that you can conduct little social experiments as you go about day to day life.

Here are two I have been doing recently, both at tube stations. When coming up from the train in a station with a non-moving staircase between the up and down escalator, I usually find that no one is walking up. But I find that if I walk up by the time I reach the top I can turn and see four or five people have followed in my wake. I undertake the second experiment at the RSA’s local station, Embankment.

There are two cash point machines side by side. Although both cash points accept all major cards, usually two separate queues have formed. This can be inequitable in that if you happen to be in a queue behind someone who is very slow or undertaking a complex transaction, you reach the machine after someone who arrived later then you in the parallel queue. So, whenever I queue I stand between the two existing queues, forming a new single line in which the front person goes to the next available cash point. Interestingly, although my intervention changes the previous queuing pattern, on every occasion so far new queue joiners have joined my new more equitable single line rather than by-passing me to reassert the single queue pattern.

The experiments show how small interventions can encourage behaviour which is on the one hand, good for public health and, on the other, more equitable and rational.

The conclusion some readers might reach from this is that I am simply a very sad person. But for those who find any of this interesting, my invitation is to develop and report on your own mini social experiments (preferably ones which seek socially benign outcomes; we don’t want hundreds of little Stanford Prisons out there!).

Imagine if tens or hundreds of thousands of us were everyday pursuing our own experiments into how to encourage pro-social behaviour; so much learning, so much positive social reinforcement - a revolution of tiny and clever kindnesses.

Comments

[John Jackson]

I've seen the single queue system for two cashpoints develop at South Kensington from time to time. Seems to be more equitable in sharing risk among those in the queue but the reality will depend on how long the queues are and the frequency of slow people. If queues are short and slow people are infrequent the benefit might just be that it feels fairer? You can model this

However, a single queue does have a negative impact on others - the queue is longer and tends to block the area, slowing down flow of pedestrians. Queues tend to be longer when there are more pedestrians passing - causing more congestion. And longer queues are more likely to really share the risks within the queue.

[Matt Cain]

I noticed today that if someone holds a door open for me, I always have to hold the door open for the person behind me. I don't think it was concious goodwill on my part - more a sense of being bound by reciprocity.

[Laura Haynes]

Matthew, Indeed it probably is sad behaviour, but if we do want to change things (really want to change them) sometimes we can make impact at grass roots level through small acts that we undertake personally,that ultimately may achieve a tipping point. As I mentioned at the Event at the RSA last month, I am concerned about the dehumanization of big cities (particularly London) and having experienced life in a smaller city in North America for the last few years, I have continued to smile at people in my daily walks and even say good morning as I get on and off the tube. True, some people shy away, but with others, you see a light go off in their eyes because they have had some human contact. This can and should of course extend to the way in which we design our cities, public spaces, communications, etc. - but it is a start and I am hoping for some small change in behavious amongst my fellow city dwellers.

[Matthew Cain]

Has anyone any experience of being able to change the tenor of an online forum or debate? Have you been able to return to the topic, defend the organisation under attack or gain support for a particular action?

[Matthew Cain]

I can usually make sure that a group of people stand aside at the door of a tube. Though such action doesn't always have to be good: if I'm waiting at a crossing but decide to cross the road dangerously, at least 1 person opposite will step into the road, watching me rather than the traffic. I usually thank bus drivers as I get off - but have no evidence if it encourages others to follow.

I always thought it was just my amazing power of persuasion - perhaps it's biased in favour of people called Matthew.

[ReHeated]

@ John: The British have not always been addicted to queuing. Joe Moran says (http://www.profilebooks.com/title.php?titleissue_id=430), that the myth of the British as enthusiastic queuers only emerged during WWII. I highly recommend his book as a guide to these "infra-ordinary" habits.

His work demonstrates the fragility of social norms - and also their plasticity. We will always be lamenting their disappearance; but we can also create new ones, more amenable to modern times.

ps. @ Robert: "Laura", I think, is actually Peter. Who, I would guess, has got this one right.

[Robert Muetzelfeldt]

So, Laura, YOU are the one responsible for the ridiculous (and I guess uniquely British) behaviour one observes these days: sign warning of 2 lanes merging into one, resulting in a totally empty outside lane for a good half-mile or so! The rational (and much more equitable) behaviour is for both lanes to continue up to the merging point, then take it in turns to merge.

My guess is that the odd motorist in the outside lane is in fact not a selfish sod, but a social innovator trying to engineer sensible group behaviour.

[John Guttridge]

I find a certain sadness here in that many of the examples quoted would have been normal behaviour not so many years ago. The British, for example were renownd for their orderly approach to queuing. In schools and the home these actions were taught under the heading of good manners.

[Laura Billings]

Another campaign along the lines of the Karma Army is Team Nice
http://www.team-nice.co.uk/index.php
Campaigning to make London a nicer place.

[Ian Gilmour]

I would like to see a space in Second Life (or other virtual world) devoted to modelling new behaviours. This could also be used to get the public participating in and suggesting what they see as good pro-social interventions.

Interestingly in another Second Life experiment, the Immersive Virtual Environments Laboratory at University College London - http://vecg.cs.ucl.ac.uk/ - where researchers are looking at how to make people engage with characters inside a virtual environment, and exploring how virtual reality could be used to help train people to cope with real world difficulties - found that people reacted exactly the same way in a virtual world as they did in real life, so the challenge maybe is to how to get people to think in a more pro-social manner. See the BBC article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7056199.stm about this.

[Ian Gilmour]

In terms of small kindnesses, Danny Wallace (TV personality & good friend of Dave Gorman) has also set up the social network the "Karma Army" - http://www.join-me.co.uk/the-karma-army.html - worth a look. This is about random acts of kindness - like buying a coffee and handing it to someone - really interesting.

[Laura Billings]

One thing that I noticed a collegue do recently was to come over to my desk to talk face to face in response to my email, rather than mail me back. It is a small gesture but it completely changes the atmosphere of the offices. I have now started to do this myself (proof of the ripple effect Becca mentioned). There is a theory that the majority of workplace learning is informal, and this sort of face to face contact not only strenthens social bonds, but also lends itself to better internal communication about work issues, and cross fertilisation of ideas and chance encounters.

[Peter Mansfield]

Sometimes good habits catch on very quickly. A few years ago, when approaching a lane reduction on a dual carriageway, I began blocking the offside lane (usually opposite a lorry) to stop people overtaking and then forcing their way in at the funnel. We got some bad road rage to begin with. Others must have been doing it too, and now it's common practice. The obvious benefit to speed of the obedient inside lane has clearly registered.
Another action we are trying in Newark is to pick up an item of litter and put it in a bin you are about to walk past. Done every day this cleans the street very quickly. People look, but don't jeer. We're hoping they think twice before dropping anything else.

[David Straker]

Social change is so interesting. At changingminds.org I'm building a resource on this.

Something I do when walking to and from Waterloo is to help tourists who are taking photos. I either stop when they are photographing one another, rather than walking through the shot, (and guess what - others stop too) or offer to photograph them together. It invariably creates a surprised thanks and I like to think it helps build the brand of London as a friendly city.

[Alice]

I do a couple of things which I hope the receivers will also do to others...

In locations I know, I offer directions to lost people. I do this because I like to personalise cities - to help people to feel that they have connected to the place they visited.

I pay compliments more often than I criticise. Compliments seem to cheer me up as well as the receiver. I don't find it at all hard professionally or socially, and sometimes to complete strangers.

I'm also interested in motivation... what makes us helpful to strangers or interested in the greater good? Is there an element of self-satisfaction that we thought of a way to make the world better, of pride that our idea has been taken up by others? Is it the way to create the just and supportive soceity we want? Is is simply the only way to behave if we are to look at ourselves in the mirror?

[Karl Hallam]

When waiting at baggage reclaim at airports I always stand back and only move forward when I see my bag. I leave the trolley well out of the way. Although I have not flown for a few years (partly carbon footprint reduction, partly silliness of mixing small children and airports) this has never seemed to prevent anyone else from standing up close to the belt with their trolley. Why is this? One reason might be that in unfamiliar environments people are less tuned into the kind of behaviour clues Matthew gave with his walking and queueing experiments. We tend not to think about how we behave in places we go everyday and maybe we are more likely to behave 'better' when we don't think about it.
Some research I'm involved in is about how we connect with people and place when we walk and cycle and we hope to include some emotional mapping. It offers the opportunity to try and induce behavior changes similar to those Matthew mentions, but in a controlled way and with less chance of people thinking we are indeed a bit sad.
Finally, I have had some success with stopping at red lights when cycling.

[Becca Pyne]

As we're on the subject of socially benign experiments - I for one don't think they're that benign. I recently read that when you decide to act courteously, be polite and helpful, that a thoughtful action such as letting someone on the tube before you, picking up a wallet or ticket a person has dropped on a busy street and returning it, then that individual is more likely to act courteously to the next person they interact with. It's like a gentle ripple effect. What is slightly disheartening is the surprise on peoples faces that you have actually stopped to help them. Changing behaviour can start with being more conscious and respectful of the people around us and we can start with the most simple of actions.

[Matthew Taylor]

Thanks Ian for this great post (and Laura for yours). I like the idea of a wiki on pro-social interventions. But would we have enough material? I have offered two small examples, it would be great to hear some more...

[Laura Bunt]

I really like the idea of RSA Fellows getting together to write a book sharing stories and ways to encourage pro-social behaviour. Charlie Leadbeater pioneered this kind of collaborative creativity with We-think (http://www.wethinkthebook.net), an innovative online experiment to publish a book written collectively. We could combine your first and third ideas, writing the book via a wiki/social website. The act of writing the book could in itself be an example of pro-social behaviour. Why not post this on the networks platform Ian?

[Ian Gilmour]

Matthew

Some ideas:
(1) This would work very well with a wiki / social website which could effectively brainstorm the multitude of similar ideas, and for people to report back on what they have done. Could of course be done through RSA Networks.
(2) A Pledgebank type approach may work well (Tom Steinberg).
(3) Could also work along the lines of those environmental books such as "We Are What We Do" or "How to Change the World" (David Bornstein). The RSA could even publish a book on "50 ways to encourage pro-social behaviour without costing you time or money"...or whatever. It may be possible to calculate/estimate the cost benefit of each pro-social behaviour intervention - benefit to the economy and wellbeing etc.
(4) Ties in with happiness projects.
(5) Anti-Apathy's work on Nag it project.
(6) There is linkage with RSA Networks proposed project "How can we make people smile again in big cities (especially London)".

Ian