This past weekend was a perfect opportunity to conduct observations on human interactions and reactions. The laboratory for this operation was not some sterile, controlled environment, but it took place in the wild where the subjects were not aware that they were part of an experiment…I went clothes shopping with my wife. The subjects were primarily women and the observations took place in Talbots. I generally enjoy people-watching and for some reason it suddenly dawned on me that I was witnessing the interaction of a cross-section of women from young girls to matronly women and everything in-between. I actually took notes, undetected of course, because it is easy to poke into a smart phone when people think you are simply texting.
My wife trusts my judgment and often asks for my opinion on things. On this day I could sense the detachment in her thinking and knew that this was going to be a day of introspection for her and I would wait patiently for her to request for anything more than a nod of approval from me. I picked out the Husband-Chair closest to the door and began my people watching. This particular store is a favorite of mine because there are a total of SIX Husband-Chairs and most only have only one or an isolated bench or two.
First Observation – The natural state of a human is a neutral expression. It is not exactly a frown, but it takes an external stimulus for the smile muscles to go into action. Most people are probably not aware of their expressions or the motivation to change it. Not surprising, interaction with other people seems to be the primary stimulus for generating smiles. When women react to each other, even in the cashier’s line, they are talking and smiling even though it is a chance meeting and not with someone they know or have met before.
Second Observation – There is not a noticeable difference in social interaction that can be attributed to age. The young apprentice shoppers interacted with others in the same manner as the experienced, well seasoned lifers. Children seemed to generate unsolicited smiles, indicating to me that a high percentage of shoppers are mothers or at least were touched by some built-in maternal reflex. I caught myself smiling as well, so perhaps it is more parental than maternal. There were several tri-generational shopping packs with the shopper-in-training types picking up pointers from two older women who were more than willing to set the example for them.
Third Observation – There is most definitely a gender response to both male and female participants in the shopping laboratory. Female participants behave as if this is a life force generator while men seem to be content with participating from the sidelines…it is a spectator sport to them. When I took my people watching mobile, almost without exception every woman who encountered me gave me a smile. I wasn’t sure if it was the beginnings of a subtle laugh because I was out of place in a dress shop or if it was a legitimate smile generator experience, but it was real and made me smile back.
Fourth Observation – Shopping is a social event. One woman entering the shop declared, “Hi, Mom!†to another person indicating that this was not a planned meeting. Then they began shopping together as if it had been scripted. Others in the store obviously ran into friends and neighbors and interrupted the business of shopping with occasional small talk. Even though their grouping together blocked aisles and access to rows of clothes, neither the other shoppers nor the store management seemed to care. This was totally accepted as normal behavior.
Fifth Observation – There is a distinct psychology employed in the layout of a women’s store. Most of the women entering the store were stimulated to smile before the door closed behind them. At least half of them went immediately to the table laid out directly in front of the entrance and touched, fondled, unfolded then refolded something that had been carefully placed on that table before they moved on to the serious aspects of shopping. Now THAT is effective marketing and is an effective tool to replace neutral faces with smiling ones. As a curious side note, most women smiled as they entered the shop but were not smiling when they walked out.
Finally, I struck up a conversation with a male fellow traveler sitting in an adjacent chair. We talked about the weather when one woman entering the store smiled at us and commented, “Oooh it’s chilly out there,†stating the obvious since it had begun to snow. Then he said something that stunned me: “They should have some better reading material on these tables.†It was then I suddenly realized that the catalogs, brochures and even the chairs were not there to be functional…they were decorations! I was totally sucked in to believing that they had provided us with Husband-Chairs! Perhaps the husbands are planned store decorations as they are lured to occupy the cute, upholstered, carefully positioned furniture. It is all part of the store design psychology.
If there is any lesson to be learned from this experiment it is that social interaction in almost any endeavor can create emotions that show up in facial expressions as an outward sign of the internal workings of the mind. Do we know how to read them? Or do we take the simple things for granted when there may be something more important going on. Perhaps people respond to an environment based on their own expectations, training and experiences. If we are to understand other people we need to indulge a bit in curiosity to observe and learn from others and not assume that initial thoughts are anything other than the genesis of prejudice. In listening and carefully watching others we get a glimpse into ourselves.