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Author
Topic: Looking for creativity!
Rodent King
Stabbed in the Eye
posted 06-11-2004 12:44:48 AM
I've got myself enrolled in a psychology course to pick up some credit hours in Gen Ed. Instead of a a term paper, we're given the task of performing a study of some kind of psychological experiment.

I'm looking for some suggestions about functional experiments, though humor's encouraged. Some of the better ones exampled involved finding how people reacted to others tailgating them in the lines for ATM's, having someone continuously let friends cut in line at the cafeteria, or some other kind of behaviour activity.

Thanks in advance, and just throw ideas out there. Provided they don't involve a lot of nudity.

My inner child is bigger than my outer adult.
Fizodeth
an unflattering title
posted 06-11-2004 12:49:21 AM
Find out how people react when you ask them if they are leet.
Beta Tested
Pancake
posted 06-11-2004 12:54:11 AM
Ask people if they like di-hydrogen oxide even though it can be deadly.

Ask people if they are homosapeints. Many students at my HS give me weird looks and deny it completely.

What's this thing do?
That would be sooo cool if it wasn't going to hurt us.
Melphina's Magelo
Azrael Heavenblade
Damn Dirty Godmoder
posted 06-11-2004 12:55:15 AM
Hmm, here's two I thought of off the top of my head, think one's been done before.

1. Stare at some object or up into the sky, and see how many people look in the same direction you are.

2. Get some friends, and form a line near some door you know won't open for a while. Don't say anything, just stand there as if you're waiting for something. See how many people line up behind you.

Azrael Heavenblade fucked around with this message on 06-11-2004 at 12:55 AM.

"The basic tool for manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use them." - Philip K. Dick
Saith
Pancake
posted 06-11-2004 12:55:39 AM
Strike up conversations with total strangers like you've known them for years, see how various people react. Do they go along with it, or think your nuts, or ask, who you are etc etc.

damn.. wrong account...

Saith fucked around with this message on 06-11-2004 at 12:56 AM.

Palador ChibiDragon
Dismembered
posted 06-11-2004 01:07:08 AM
There's the classic "unmakred button" trick. Stick a button somewhere, and keep count of how many people press it just to see what it does. Variants on that include signs that say "Do Not Press", "Out of Order", and "In Case of Lobster, Press Button". You might try several different buttons, all similar save for the signs, and see which gets pressed more often. Of course, this trick requires that you get buttons with counters in them from somewhere.

I also recall that there is someplace on the internet where you can look up alot of payphone numbers. If they've got some listed for your general area (of if you can find them out another way), call them at random times and see if anybody answers. If they do, tell them why you're doing it, and ask them if they will tell you why they answered.

I believe in the existance of magic, not because I have seen proof of its existance, but because I refuse to live in a world where it does not exist.
Dr Cysa
Angsty Mcangst
posted 06-11-2004 01:52:49 AM
quote:
Beta Tested had this to say about Robocop:
Ask people if they like di-hydrogen oxide even though it can be deadly.

Ask people if they are homosapeints. Many students at my HS give me weird looks and deny it completely.


A kid from church down in Arkansas past me a survey asking if I wanted to band Di-hydrogen oxide, because it caused sweating, vomiting, and occasional deaths. Over 35 people had signed to ban it, I was 1 of 3 to say no.

I don't discriminate...I hate everyone.
OtakuPenguin
Peels like a tangerine, but is juicy like an orange.
posted 06-11-2004 01:59:27 AM
quote:
Nobody really understood why Azrael Heavenblade wrote:
2. Get some friends, and form a line near some door you know won't open for a while. Don't say anything, just stand there as if you're waiting for something. See how many people line up behind you.

I Like that one!

..:: This Is The Sound Of Settling ::..
Bloodsage
Heart Attack
posted 06-11-2004 03:19:19 AM
quote:
There was much rejoicing when Palador ChibiDragon said this:
There's the classic "unmakred button" trick. Stick a button somewhere, and keep count of how many people press it just to see what it does. Variants on that include signs that say "Do Not Press", "Out of Order", and "In Case of Lobster, Press Button". You might try several different buttons, all similar save for the signs, and see which gets pressed more often. Of course, this trick requires that you get buttons with counters in them from somewhere.

I also recall that there is someplace on the internet where you can look up alot of payphone numbers. If they've got some listed for your general area (of if you can find them out another way), call them at random times and see if anybody answers. If they do, tell them why you're doing it, and ask them if they will tell you why they answered.


I thought pay phones no longer took incoming calls?

To reign is worth ambition, though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.

--Satan, quoted by John Milton

Burger
BANNED!
posted 06-11-2004 03:33:34 AM
epoxy several quarters to the sidewalk on a busy street corner and study who attempts to pick them up, how long they spend, and graph that against apparent wealth, apparant age, sex, and other social factors.

See if you can spot any trends.

See if anyone succeeds in getting them.

Bite me.

No, Really. Bite me.

Azakias
Never wore the pants, thus still wields the power of unused (_|_)
posted 06-11-2004 08:30:49 AM
quote:
The logic train ran off the tracks when Azrael Heavenblade said:
2. Get some friends, and form a line near some door you know won't open for a while. Don't say anything, just stand there as if you're waiting for something. See how many people line up behind you.

This one works. I've done it.

Do it around or one a base. Yiou'll get lots of people.

"Age by age have men stood up and said to the world, 'From what has come before me, I was forged, but I am new and greater than my forebears.' And so each man walks the world in ruin, abandoned and untried. Less than the whole of his being"
Black
The Outlaw Torn
posted 06-11-2004 08:45:12 AM
quote:
I can still see Azrael Heavenblade's Dad, running after me with a shovel in his hand.
2. Get some friends, and form a line near some door you know won't open for a while. Don't say anything, just stand there as if you're waiting for something. See how many people line up behind you.
But what do you answer when people ask what you're waiting for?

"I don't know"?



Time was never on my side.
So on I wait my whole lifetime.

Razor
posted 06-11-2004 08:54:46 AM
quote:
Bloodsage had this to say about Jimmy Carter:
I thought pay phones no longer took incoming calls?

THere are two payphones at my college that get incomming calls... They happen to be in the Student Center which happens to be the only place where a payphone is inside. It gets Damn annoying. The phones are part of SBC/PacBell.

Astronomy is a passion...
Engineering is a love...
My job isn't a job, it's my career, and I love every minute of it: Observatory Superintendent
Callalron
Hires people with hooks
posted 06-11-2004 02:50:59 PM
You can call in to any payphone, it just depends on how the phone is programmed. You can either turn the ringer on or off as part of the paytable file. Even if the ringer is shut off, you could still detect an incoming call by putting your ear near the phone and listening for the relay to click when the phone is called, assuming the area is quiet enough for you to listen.
Callalron
"When mankind finally discovers the center of the universe, a lot of people are going to be upset that it isn't them."
"If you give a man a fish he'll eat for a day. If you teach a man to fish he'll just go out and buy an ugly hat. But if you talk to a starving man about fish, then you've become a consultant."--Dogbert
Arvek, 41 Bounty Hunter
Vrook Lamar server
Gunslinger Moogle
No longer a gimmick
posted 06-11-2004 03:08:28 PM
I remember reading a story in Asimov's about a kid in a similar course.

What he did, was he pretended he was from a military agency testing out new 'stealth' technology. He and his friends put on a big show of building an "invisible" wall in the middle of campus that ended at 4 feet, then had some more accomplices walk into it, pretend they'd walked into something solid, then try again by ducking under it.

Funny story; at the end, when they "blow up" the wall, the guy trips and almost breaks his foot...on nothing. Duh nuh!

Hope that helps.




moogle is the 3241727861th binary digit of pi

Disclaimer: I'm just kidding, I love all living things.
The fastest draw in the Crest.
"The Internet is MY critical thinking course." -Maradon
"Gambling for the husband, an abortion for the wife and fireworks for the kids they chose to keep? Fuck you, Disneyland. The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is the happiest place on Earth." -JooJooFlop

diadem
eet bugz
posted 06-11-2004 03:21:32 PM
Show people a box with some stuff in it for five minutes, have them listen to a fictional story about another box with the stuff in it for an hour, then quiz them about the real box's contents. Could be something as simple as "The box is red and has two quarters and a green banna in it" repating over and over. DOnno, the concept's there, just to see how much people's memorys can be skued by hearing repatitive lies.

Edit:
Put two people in a room, give them each a ball. You have two buckets. If the subject puts a ball in their own bucket, they get $5. If they put the ball in their friend's bucket, their friend gets $20. See what happens.

See how many people agree to put the ball's in each others bucket. Try it when the other person doesn't know what you do and the people are strangers.

diadem fucked around with this message on 06-11-2004 at 03:24 PM.

play da best song in da world or me eet your soul
Nicole
The hip-hop-happiest bunny in all of marshmallow woods
posted 06-11-2004 11:08:03 PM
Seven words: "Looking at a thing in a bag."

More words than seven: Get a mask, put it on, and go about your daily affairs like that. See who reacts and what the reactions are. Giggle.



I just spent
my last cent
purchasing this poverty.

`Doc
Cold in an Alley
posted 06-12-2004 10:33:58 AM
quote:
When they turned on the Infinite Improbability Drive, Nicole stammered,
More words than seven: Get a mask, put it on, and go about your daily affairs like that. See who reacts and what the reactions are. Giggle.
Hard to compete with that. Though you might have trouble seeing the facial expressions of people as you walk around.
Base eight is just like base ten, really... if you're missing two fingers. - Tom Lehrer
There are people in this world who do not love their fellow human beings, and I hate people like that! - Tom Lehrer
I want to be a race car passenger; just a guy who bugs the driver. "Say man, can I turn on the radio? You should slow down. Why do we gotta keep going in circles? Can I put my feet out the window? Man, you really like Tide..." - Mitch Hedberg
Please keep your arms, legs, heads, tails, tentacles, pseudopods, wings, and/or other limb-like structures inside the ride at all times.
Please submit all questions, inquests, and/or inquiries, in triplicate, to the Department of Redundancy Department, Division for the Management of Division Management Divisions.

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