Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Subway sociology

On the subway home, there was a big puddle of liquid on one of the seats. It looked like someone had spilled a large double-double there. It was really interesting watching how people reacted to it. Everyone had exactly the same body language when they walked up to the seat. "Oh, there's an empty seat, I'll just..WHOA don't want to sit there!" It was exactly the same for everyone! Also, people standing in the area sort of adopted a position that would make it more difficult for someone to sit in that seat. I don' tknow if it was conscious or if they were just subconsciously adapting to the new definitions of "avilable standing space", but it was almost like they were sentries protecting people from the puddly seat. I would have taken pictures if I had a camera (and could have taken pictures surreptiously, so as not to affect the behaviour of the natives in their natural environment.)

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

That really does sound like a sociology experiment.

Or a Candid Camera segment.