Sociology: Norm-Breaching Experament
...rated after asking roughly 10 people and not getting a thing from them that I started offering them a hand full of pennies for a simple thought on anything. A few took the pennies and told me that they hated pennies, or that what I was doing was cute. One boy told me that I might get further if I offered quarters. I tried to explain to him that a quarter made no sense because of the saying, but he did not want to listen and said a penny wasn’t really worth much. Then a boy by the name of Jason took my offer and told me that he thought if I was to get anywhere with anyone I wouldn’t try to buy them. I was not expecting anyone to react the way these people had. I figured I had failed my first attempt and head out of the park to go get some coffee. I walked to Flower Garden, a local coffee shop in Grass Valley. I thought that maybe I would meet someone there I knew and they would help me figure out what I had done wrong. When I arrived there was no one there that I knew. I decided to sit outside and ask people that were sitting outside as well if they would like a penny for their thoughts. I approached a young female who was sitting alone, seemingly waiting for someone she was meeting. I smiled and placing a penny on the table asked her “A penny for your thoughts?” She looked up at me and told me that she was waiting for her friend to show up to the coffee shop. She hated waiting but refused to be late and could never get the hang of being “right on time”. So, coming to a compromise, there she waited for her friend who was 5 minutes late and having nothing better to do, sat and stared off into the distance hoping that the time may seem to go faster. At this point I felt I had a chance to continue with the one person who had taken me up on my offer. I placed another penny on the table and asked her what she was thinking when she stared off into space. She began to tell me when she interrupted herself by stating that her friend was walking up. I told her to save the penny for any time she wished to talk, and that I was not too difficult to find. At this point I introduced myself, which felt a bit awkward considering people usually introduce themselves at the beginning of a conversation. She told me her name was Shannon and that she would let me know when she wished to take me up on my offer. I sat at a separate table and drank my coffee, wondering if I should just stay at the coffee shop all day, like some sort of animal looking for my prey. The idea of looking for people to be sitting and waiting bored me, and seemed less natural than my plan of talking to whomever I came across. At that point I felt I had to walk around and convince myself that no matter haw many rejections I got, there would at least be one person who was willing to compromise by giving me something in exchange for a penny. I walked up a few blocks to the local Circle K. I bought a bottle of water and scanned the store for people I could talk with. I saw no one inside that looked to be willing to even say hello to anyone else, so I stepped outside. To my surprise on the side of the store sat a girl crying. I walked over to her and asked if everything was ok. When she lifted her head I realized that I had met her once before, but had forgotten her name. She told be that she was fine and that she would leave soon so that no one else would see her. I sat next to her and placed a penny on the ground between us. “A penny and anything you want from inside for your thoughts” I asked her with a sympathetic tone. At this point the tears came full force and she hid her face in her hands. She told me of how she had cheated on her ex fiancé with a boy that she was now in love with. But recently she and her new boyfriend were not getting along so well and she had no one else to go to with her problems but him. She was in desperate need of some good advice. After asking her a few questions ...