OK, so the National geographic channel says this is a brand new series. And I have to admit its kind of an awesome show. It shows various social experiments in which the Team investigates social misbehaviors and how they try to solve the problems. I just watched it and feel like writing about it.
- Dirty Deeds
In this program they installed hidden cameras in public bathrooms of a Baseball Stadium. Not the toilet part of course, just the hand washing area. They observed how many people were not washing their hands before leaving the bathroom. Quite a lot of people actually. So they performed 2 experiments;
The lemon experiment
In one of the bathrooms, they installed devices that gave out fragrance of lemons. Psychologists say that the smell of lemon makes us want to clean ourselves or whatever. So they noticed an increase in the number of people washing their hand before leaving the bathroom!
The music experiment
They installed speakers that created different sports-related sounds, when they open the taps and when they pull out the towels. They hear the crowd applauding when they pull the towel. Surprisingly this had a positive effect on people! While the lemon experiment increased the percentage up to 80 something, the music experiment resulted a success percentage of 90 something! So now you know why they call this show as crowd control.
They also stopped people from double dipping in a public eating place. The idea was to prove that people do bad behavior when they know no one is looking. So when they put the labels, “single dippers” and “double dippers” near two bowls, everyone started dipping into the “single dipper” bowl.
Another interesting experiment they did was in cinema, to prevent noise level. To stop people from checking their phones, to stop them from whispering to each other, to stop them from munching out too loud etc. They used an ultrasound wave sending device to whisper to a certain someone, instead of going to that person and telling them. The experiment was very successful!
And this last experiment was the most interesting one. Environmentalists are trying to persuade people to use eco-friendly bags instead of plastic ones right? With advertising, advising, with appealing commercials and all. I think the experiment they did will solve this problem. They attached a picture near the plastic bags showing a baby seal choking on a plastic bags. So every time the customer comes up to pay for their items, the Sales Clerk will ask “would you like an eco-friendly bag or would you like to kill a baby seal?” When they see the poor baby seal and when they hear the question, they are reluctant to choose the plastic bags! They choose the other bag instead! How fantastic!
