Saturday, May 9, 2009

Human Behavior Research Project

I would love to conduct a research project to find out what people are thinking when they flagrantly disregard social mores. I wish I could just ask people, "hey, why did you (park in the handicapped spot/take a phone call in a movie/whatever)?

Let's face it, everybody, at least on occasion, makes the decision to so something they know isn't really cool. Usually, there's a thought process, even if it's fast. I'd love to get some insight into people's thought processes at these times. (I know, I'm easily entertained.) I don't want to give them a hard time, I'm just curious about the reasoning.

Like the group of middle aged adults who chose to have a conference call using the speaker feature on their cell phone in the middle of a busy store. Did it never occur to them that it might be a bit annoying to the people around them to have to listen to all that racket?

Or, what exactly was this person thinking when they parked their giant SUV on top of a big red NO PARKING sign?

There is no way they missed the sign. This was a movie theater, not an airport. So you miss a few minutes of the movie going up a level to find an actual parking space, does it really justify this? Did they realize they were impeding the flow of traffic creating a frustrating and potentially dangerous situation? Maybe they didn't realize they had just turned a two way traffic flow in to a one-way traffic flow and created a huge blind spot. Maybe they didn't care. I don't know, but I'd like to find out. I’m guessing they did realize they wouldn’t be towed. Way too much hassle to tow a car let alone an SUV out of a parking garage, especially one with such low clearance. Oh well, one of the eternal mysteries of life, I guess.

1 comment:

Bee said...

The husband and I went to see a movie a few months ago and there were two guys sitting in the row in front of us. A phone rang and one of the dudes picked it up. He was whispering but the guy he came with started yelling “hang up! You’re in a movie you douchebag! HANG UP HANG UP!” and my husband finally told the guy to shut the eff up since he was being more annoying than the guy on the phone.

They turned around and I thought “here we go! It’s go time!” But they left instead. Oh well probably for the best since I wasn’t wearing my fighting clothes. ;o)

Also, my husband is a loud eater so it's torture when he's eating nachos at the movies.