I spent 2 hours walking through Wal-Mart to gauge reactions of aggression towards me in strangers and in acquaintances. Out of the ten strangers that I used in my study only four out of ten responded with an aggressive type action. However, when answering my questions afterwards nine out of ten reported feeling angry and wanting to react. Among the group of acquaintances used seven out of ten reacted in an aggressive manner and nine out of the ten reported feeling angry and wanting to react aggressively. These findings support my hypothesis and are in line with my personal experiences.
Method
For the purpose of this study strangers are defined as people that I have had so little interaction with that they would not recognize me. Also, acquaintances are defined as people that I easily recognize due to seeing them repeatedly in the same place or people that I actually do know and just happened to run into at Wal-Mart.
First I would try to cause aggravation in the participants by standing in the middle of an isle that is hard to fit two carts through and make no attempt to move when they obviously wanted to get by. In order to get more participants I also used the method of walking in front of where they were obviously looking and stand there pretending to take my time deciding on what I needed. Their reactions were gauged on a scale of 1-5 as follows:
1=absolutely no reaction
2=said, “Excuse me” but upon being ignored walked away
3=Said, “Excuse me” repeatedly but eventually walked away
4=Said, “Excuse me” and upon getting no response turned around and very firmly placed their next item in their cart
5=Said, “Excuse me” and upon being ignored, either pushed their way in to get whatever item they needed or made some attempt to forcefully get around me.
Ratings of four and five are considered aggressive responses. A rating of five is considered behaving in an aggressive manner towards me specifically. (Note please that they did not all necessarily say “Excuse me” but for the purpose of this I took clearing the throat in an obvious manner or any other verbalization of asking me to move as an acceptable response in my gauging.)
After the exchange, when the person started walking away, depending on which level of action I had experienced with them I would approach and debrief them and ask my survey questions. If they seemed to be heading toward a level four grading I would let a little more time pass before approaching them to see if they did indeed place their next item in a firm manner into their cart. When I approached them first I apologized, then I explained that I was doing something for a class (but at this time did not reveal specifics to try and avoid leading them to giving me the answers I was looking for) and asked if they would help me out and answer three questions for me. I narrowed my questions down to three so that they did not think it would take much time and would be more willing to do it. My questions were as follows:
1) Did my blocking your path/grocery selection make you feel aggravated?
2) Did you want to make me move?
3) Why did you not try harder to make me move?
The first two were either a yes/no answer and the third question gave me an opportunity to see if they noted their reason as something to do with that they knew or did not know me based on which group they belonged to. After they had answered my questions I thanked them for helping me with my assignment and went on my way.
Tables of my results:
For answers to the third question five out of ten in the stranger category reported that it was because they did not know me. Two out of ten reported that it was because they felt it was inappropriate to react when angry and the last two said they did not know why they didn’t try harder that it just wasn’t in their nature. One person actually did try to just get around me to get what they wanted and they weren’t kind about it.
Answers to the third question for the familiar group were the following: the two of the three that ranked three or lower reported that they did not try harder because I looked intent in whatever I was looking at and they didn’t want to disturb me. The third person ranking three or lower reported that they were not in the mood that day to fight with anyone so they thought it would be best to walk away. The remaining four participants did try to make me move.
Discussion
The findings mostly support my hypothesis, but the sample size was relatively small so it is hard to determine if my results would be wide-spread. I believe that the results would show up over and over though, based on my personal experiences. I draw my experience from watching my four boys interact first within their own little brother group and then in larger groups full of kids they don’t know. My boys are more likely to haul off and hit each other, even knowing they will get in trouble for it, than they are to hit another kid in a group that they do not know. Another reason I believe that this hypothesis is correct is because taking our aggression out on people we label as “safe”, we can pretty much gauge how they will respond to our aggressive behavior; we also know that in most cases they will still be there after we have cooled down and our aggression is lessened.
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