Research - The Sun feature

My house mate saved me an article she saw in 'The Sun' newspaper. They had a feature on finding Britain's good samaritans by using signs. It's useful for me to look at as an experiment because it looks at getting strangers involved and using signs. It's a bit like Wearing's project, but instead of them writing what they were thinking, they got people to hold signs and see how the public reacted.

The idea came about as they'd previously had a story on an unemployed 18 year-old who walks around her local town with a sign saying "Please give me a job" in a bid to get herself employed. Their idea was to have signs asking for change for a parking meter, or a hug, take them to different places and see how people reacted. They also did the experiment twice, once with a man and once with a woman to see if that made any difference.

While it's not directly linked with identity, I found it interesting because The Sun then asked certain people why they did respond to the signs and didn't and the person's appearance often came into it, one girl expressing that she didn't give the man money for the parking meter because she looked at him and feared he'd use it on drugs instead. It's that snap judgement we all make upon seeing someone instantly. We might think we're not judgemental and that we don't go on appearances but unfortunately as a first meeting or when you pass a stranger on a street, this is exactly what most of us do. I've included some photos of the layout and the images below.