Demonstrating conformity.
Social influence has a considerable effect on how people interact with each other and with their surroundings. This in turn challenges architects and urban planners to find a balance between designing in a way that pleases the social norms while simultaneously keeping in line with its programme.
This project explores social influence, as well as the related features of human psychology, with particular focus on the concept of conformity. A series of social experiments were carried out on architecture students during a weekend workshop to demonstrate how it is a human instinct to comply with standards, rules and group behaviour.
Experiment 1
In the same way queue barriers are used in theatres and airports to organise a group of people, a makeshift barrier was set up during lunchtime simply using red and white tape tied to empty containers. Enough space was left in front of the food-serving table to give people the choice of ignoring the barrier and going straight for the food. However, the social standards that come with such a barrier were adhered to, and the participants of the workshop queued up according to the guidance of the barrier in order to get food, no questions asked.
Experiment 2
The same experiment was carried out the following day, only this time the empty containers were replaced with humans, blindfolded and with their arms out. By doing so, we were able to break the way people blindly conformed to the barrier - the participants now tried to interact with us and distort the shape of the barrier, which no longer served as a means of control since most didn't even go through it but rather went around to get food.
Experiment 3
A makeshift table was set up in the centre of workshop by piling wooden pallets on top of each other and laying a black material over it. At 3pm, a cardboard sign was stuck to its front with the words "Free hot chocolate at 4pm" painted onto it. In reality, hot chocolate was free and available from the kitchen at any time of day throughout the weekend.
At exactly 4pm, we brought out cocoa powder, cups, stirrers and an electric kettle and left them alone on the table. It was made obvious that the kettle was unplugged, empty and with no electricity available in the near vicinity. Yet, the participants are seen grabbing the cups and kettle and attempting to make hot chocolate - why? because the sign told them it’s available.
What's even more interesting is that a couple of participants eventually took the kettle and the ingredients into the kitchen and made hot chocolate there. As soon as the first person was seen walking around holding hot chocolate in his hand, everybody did the same thing and went to the kitchen specifically to make hot chocolate. So ironically, this makeshift table placed in the middle of the site with a bunch of ingredients on it resulted in having a kitchen full of people making hot chocolate.
Team:
Alannah Xuereb
Alexia Bonello Ghio
Nigel Cini
Eman Falzon
Daniel Sammut
Mattia Depasquale
Rebekah Grixti
Carla Cardona
Julian Vella
Matthew Scerri
Lucia Calleja
Jean Ebejer
