Sociology experiment (in Off-topic)

Ok so my professor gave us an experiment to try on people in public. We are suppose to ask as many people as we can for a dollar. I have had fairly good results but am not able to spend a lot of time on this, so I am bringing it to CB. I'm not going to ask for real money here but how many people will give me 100,000 CBD's Also if you were approached by a total stranger and they asked you for a dollar would you give them one? I have one week left to complete my research so who is willing to help me out. Thanks alot.

Assuming I had a dollar to give (a rather large assumption in my book) it would likely depend on who was asking, however it's more than likely I would.

Yes, I am that kind of a sucker.

it is unlikely that I would do that. sorry.

Get a Job? !

Little Anthony, 1:41 PM EST Get a Job? !

This.

i would give the one dollar because it always feel great to help someone else being generous the generous feeling you get from giving a single dollar is more worthy than the dollar itself
everything in life is about feeling, having the occasion to increase personnal well being through a one dollar donation is really wort it.
that's it.. for now...

I personally rely on the sagacity of random song lyrics for guidance in life.

To wit,
Lyrics by Lazyboy

"This homeless guy asked me for money the other day.
I was about to give it to him and then I thought he was going to use it on drugs or alcohol.
And then I thought, that's what I'm going to use it on.
Why am I judging this poor 'guy'.
People love to judge homeless guys. Like if you give them money they're just going to waste it.
Well, he lives in a box, what do you want him to do? Save it up and buy a wall unit?
Take a little run to the store for a throw rug and a CD rack? He's homeless.
I walked behind this guy the other day.
A homeless guy asked him for money.
He looks right at the homeless guy and says why don't you go get a job you bum.
People always say that to homeless guys like it is so easy.
This homeless guy was wearing his underwear outside his pants.
Outside his pants. I'm guessing his resume isn't all up to date.
I'm predicting some problems during the interview process.
I'm pretty sure even McDonalds has a "underwear goes inside the pants" policy.
Not that they enforce it really strictly, but technically I'm sure it is on the books."

funny song mind you.... thanks for reminding me of it

keep the replies coming these are all realy great i may have to mention that song in my report

I would :), but I dun have 100k to spare... But here's a part of an amusing song...

This guy comes up to me on the street and he tells me he hasn't had a bite in three days
Well, I knew what he meant
But just to be funny, I took a big bite out of his jugular vein
And he's yellin' and screamin' and bleeding all over
And I'm like "Hey, come on, don'tcha get it?"
But he just kept rolling around on the sidewalk, bleeding, and screaming
(screaming sounds)
You know, just completely missing the irony of the whole situation
Man, some people just can't take a joke, you know?

I work on capitol hill in DC, and there is a really large amount of homeless people who beg for money around there. As a result i have become decensersized(if thats spelt correct :) )to the occurance.
Because you have said it a socialogy experiment i do not fell obliged to send you 100K. But i am pretty sure that because you told people what it is for any data gathered from here is void.
I did a similar experiment in psychology at college. We were just told to ask strangers for a favour, the favour was ours to choose. I decided to go around college with a large empty box, and try to get people to take it to random rooms, saying it was very important and i had no time.
Everybody was willing to do it despite it being just an empty box.
I hope some of that helps you in some way.

"i would give the one dollar because it always feel great to help someone else being generous the generous feeling you get from giving a single dollar is more worthy than the dollar itself
everything in life is about feeling, having the occasion to increase personal well being through a one dollar donation is really wort it.
that's it.. for now... "
woah that's pretty deep from superdog but i don't see you give the beggar 100,000 CBD. Action means more than words. It's not about you 'would', he asks if you 'will give'.

Oh no, we have decensersized people on Capitol Hill!



*desensitized, for future reference

I'm going to agree with Palinblade. Since you revealed that this was an experiment, results will be void.

But to do your experiment anyway, my answer is "No". I will not give you 100k cbd, in the context of Carnage Blender without a good reason. This is a game after all.

Secondly, in the context of the homeless man, "Yes", I will give him a dollar without question.

Depends on the person and the situation. But most likely... no.

Rather, I would ask what the 1$ was for and if it was for something urgent like a phone call or a bus ticket, I would offer to buy that item for the person rather than give the money.

desensitised*

I vowed yearz ago to never listen to Americanz when giving out spelling tipz.

PS. Class, pure class. If I were to make a list of sentences I'm unlikely to hear in a lifetime, then this would be pretty close to the top I'm sure: I'm pretty sure even McDonalds has a "underwear goes inside the pants" policy.

No, I doubt I would.

P.Z. did you screw up those quotationz on purpose GB?

CrazyNic, you would listen to Weird Al.

Yes, I frequently give/loan strangers dollars.

It makes me feel safe to know that people who work on Capitol Hill know how to properly employ words like "decenserised." You work in the Capitol building itself, I presume?

I kid, I kid.

no i wont give you 100k, will u give me 100k?

I've given money to someone on the street precisely once. And only because I laughed so hard I cried.

A man was holding a sign saying "Jamal is hungry, please help feed him." And was pulling a toaster he had glued wheels to with a little sign saying, "I'm Jamal."

He got a 10 spot.

On a side note, I saw someone the other day who couldn't have been more than 20 holding a sign saying "Vietnam Vet." *Sigh*

I gave money to a pan handler once.. I paid him to find a recycling bin for me and to put a can I was holding in it. He took the money, and at least tried for as long as I was watching.

I'm gonna play the "If I'm not in a hurry" card here.
If I'm not in a hurry (or maybe I should say in a sense of being hurried, doesn't mean I have to be in a hurry) AND have spare change, I MIGHT give a "homeless" person a euro.
It's a huge gamble though...
I'll tell you what I won't do though and that's any kind of donation for any foundation. I don't care if it's the WWF or some humanitarian organization. They all work together, if you give money to 1 of them, all of them jump on you as if money is growing on your back...

It all depends on when I'm asked, how much I have on me, what I need it for, and how honest I feel you are being...

I was once asked at the Central bus terminal for "money for food"... I happened to have an extra $30 on me that I had no use for, so I offered to take the guy across the street to the McDonalds and buy him something to eat. He declined, saying he would like money to get some food with later. I personally saw this as him lying to me, and for that, I gave him nothing.

On another note, I was once asked at the same terminal for "a dollar for another beer". I had $8 on me at that point. I kept the five dollar bill (was gonna pick something up on the way home with it), but handed him the three singles, thanking him for his honesty :)

The moral: I try to be generous when I can. Lie to me, and I have no time for you ^_^

oh, and I did the McDonalds thing to a couple other people asking for money for food, and for the most part, they accepted and were appreciative ^_^

They say money can't buy happiness, but the one guy seemed happy to have his beer, and a few others seemed happy to fill their stomachs. It would seem I've achieved the impossible, and bought them some happiness, and for a pretty low price. This makes me happy ^_^

And giving money to the guy for beer was influenced by a story Sun told me about her and her mom, where a guy had a sign asking for beer and they bought him a 6-pack for his honesty. Before hearing that story, I likely wouldn't have given the guy money for the beer. And considering that my $5 was going to a guy named Keybo... I woulda been a piece of crap for not doing it ^_^

"It all depends on when I'm asked [and] how much I have on me ...."

Am I alone late at night in a parking garage being approached by a guy three times my size who would like a dollar so that I will open my bag?

Am I on a busy sidewalk in broad daylight and happen to have a few bucks in my pocket?

I have no problem with giving money to people who appear to need it, but I have a problem with personal safety.

What is a dollar's worth?
I was walking across the road one day and an old man approached me for the same thing. I donated a buck. At that time I felt kind of irritated like that guy wasn't worth it... On the second day that guy approached me again and I flatly denied. But this time again I was hurt inside because I thought that I didn't help a person in need since donating a buck wouldn't make any difference to me but it would mean a lot to him. Different scenarios, different outcomes.... The thing is you are not just donating a buck, you are acting to satisfy your conscience.

a warm thank you for anyone that can get Mr Hatchetman to read this reply.

I would really need some CB dollars to pay for forgers, I feel that my items are underpowered, and I need some new items like EB or some other high AC items. I know you appreciate honesty, and to show that I am honest, I would accept a promise to pay a certain amount of my future forging fees.

love your logic, forktoad [I agree]
instead of feeding my conscience, I am greedy and keep my dollar

I would not give you 100,000CB2, nor 1$ without good reason.

So what you're trying to tell us, PK, is that you're just a beggar?

Asking for CB isn't exactly the same as asking for a dollar randomly in public, but hey what the heck. Another sociology degree floating around....

The question is :-
Will you be able to digest having begged for that dollar (or 100k CB$) or your self-respect kill you deep down inside???

so many responses this has been more then i could have hoped for thank you everyone and to flatcap and novice thank you and to you nay sayers this was not an attempt at a scam but if i told you you would get the money back everyone would have flooded me with cbd. So from here on out the only question is would you give a stranger a dollar?

firemonkey (wacko) 67.42.111.189 QBnovice (Violent Femmes) $100000 -- thank you 1:44 PM EST
firemonkey (wacko) 67.42.111.189 Flatcap (Flatcap) $10000 -- return thank you 1:43 PM EST

sweet experiment, I'd like to see your real world results...

I give strangers a dollar all the time. I usually haggle down to 50 cents tho. You can usually get a good conversation out of spangers too, the entertainment along is worth a dollar

$1 really can get you a good entertainment in a strip club :P (NOT that i do that but so i have heard)

actually it'll just get you herpes at a stripclub

I gave about 1M stuff of market worth to my former clan members before leaving CB a few months ago thinking I wouldn't come back but I did and this has not affected me in any way except that I have to start all over again... If you detach yourself from your materialistic possesions you can donate more than just a dollar, but how many people are willing to do that? I guess indifference is what separates us from our ancestors and material attachment is what separates us from saints...

" if i told you you would get the money back everyone would have flooded me with cbd."

You already invalidated the experiment anyway by giving away too much exposition in your first post, so what does it matter?

he didn't say he was going to give it back. so those two people gave him money thinking they wouldn't get it back.

I'm from Denmark, and here we have an organisation that makes a newspaper called "Hus Forbi" (means "Nowhere to go") and it's about being homeless, there's interviews with homeless people and stuff. It costs 20 Kr (about 2.5 Euros) and some of that goes to the homeless people selling it, and the rest to fund the newspaper. I buy that (there's a new paper every month).

I will not give you 100k if you don't do anything for them. I will not give 1$ if the person just asks, but when people is doing something for the money, then I will give.

molle ^
we have (or had, haven't seen it in a while) a local paper here called "Streewise" and it was sold by the "homeless", the ones that you would normally find begging for spare change. It was a good idea, for a while. I won't get into the specifics but suffice to say the system is flawed and some will always find a way to exploit it. I used to buy that paper regularly as support and now as I've said, it's no where to be found.
I've worked in places where you couldn't take 10 steps without being hit up for "spare change". It really does get to the point where you just can't give. I've also watched beggars that spend all day at a particular location raking in the dollars only to walk 4 or 5 blocks (in their filthy clothes and dirty hair) to rather expensive vehicles and get in and drive away. It's tough trying to be giving in todays society.

Here's my two cents..

1st of all, I don't agree that telling people that this is an experiment makes the result void, not at all. Might very well be that knowing about the experiment is vital to the result. Otherwise you might as well ask X beggars how much money they make in a week, and there you have your results to just asking for a dollar..

2nd, what do you care what people do with the money, once you have given it away.. It's not your's anymore, and as soon as you let go of it you have done the (good) deed of helping someone who in their mind needed the dollar.. What they do with it doesn't really matter.. If you want to control how it's spent you should just keep it, that way you will be sure it's not wasted on something "bad"..

And that crap about not giving because they lied to you is just foolish. I didn't want some junkie/boozer coming up to me, begging me for money for heroin to inject into their body and further destroying their chances in life when I was out shopping with my 9 year old son.. Asking for a buck for busfare, or a bite to eat might very well be lying, but i think it's a nicer way to beg, and as I said above, I don't really care what he/she spends the money on..

Just for the record, I didn't see the post until now, if I had seen it before I would have sent you the $100k, in the name of good will toward man and treating people how you would like to be treated, karma and stuff. :)
Nice post btw. It would have been worth the money to read the answers people have given. It's nice to see that people have given this some thought...

Have a nice weekend all.. and, give if you have something to spare. Others might do the same. :)

The only time I've ever turned someone away empty handed was when I literally didn't have a dollar to give.
When I am walking in bigger cities like New York or Boston or Toronto, I make sure I have a few singles in my pocket separated from my regular clip, so I don't have to pull out all my money. I can slide out just a buck or 2, just because I know I'm going to be approached - I just always am, I don't know why.
A guy in NYC gave me that idea - just by chance, there were 2 loose bills in my pocket that turned out to be singles, and he was so impressed that I blindly pulled out the "couple of bucks" he had asked for, without showing him how much money I actually had, he started following me around to offer tips on how to stay safe walking the streets of NYC...