Checking Assumptions (at the door!)
May. 22nd, 2010 02:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeshyrI want you to read the scenario described below and then answer the poll questions as you read them. Please answer AS YOU READ, don't read all the questions before you answer and please don't read the comments before you answer!
To aid those who have trouble not reading anything that's in their line of sight, I'm putting the second question behind a cut tag so you can answer the first one first!
Scenario #1:
You are walking down a suburban footpath and come across a woman picking up rubbish at the front of a group of units. There are multiple dwellings on the property, but it looks like there are less than 10 - it's not a high rise apartment block or anything like that. You can see that there's a combined school and place of worship (church, synagogue, mosque) immediately across the road. The woman appears to be in her early twenties and as you're looking at her she notices and smiles at you, saying hello in a friendly way. She's wearing casual clothing which is obviously not a uniform or anything else that would indicate she's at work, but she's using a pick-up stick to help her get the rubbish into a plastic shopping bag without actually touching it.
What is your first assumption about the person described in the above scenario?
They probably live at the property and want the front to look nice.
68 (54.0%)
They've probably been employed to pick up the rubbish.
10 (7.9%)
They're probably picking up rubbish as punishment.
1 (0.8%)
They're probably doing volunteer/charity work picking up the rubbish.
39 (31.0%)
Something else I will explain in the comments.
8 (6.3%)
OK, did you answer the first one?
Pretty please answer the first one before reading this!!
Scenario #2:
You are walking down a suburban footpath and come across a woman who is in a power wheelchair (electric wheelchair) picking up rubbish at the front of a group of units. There are multiple dwellings on the property, but it looks like there are less than 10 - it's not a high rise apartment block or anything like that. You can see that there's a combined school and place of worship (church, synagogue, mosque) immediately across the road. The woman appears to be in her early twenties and as you're looking at her she notices and smiles at you, saying hello in a friendly way. She's wearing casual clothing which is obviously not a uniform or anything else that would indicate she's at work, but she's using a pick-up stick to help her get the rubbish into a plastic shopping bag without actually touching it.
What is your first assumption about the person described in the above scenario?
They probably live at the property and want the front to look nice.
85 (69.1%)
They've probably been employed to pick up the rubbish.
7 (5.7%)
They're probably picking up rubbish as punishment.
1 (0.8%)
They're probably doing volunteer/charity work picking up the rubbish.
24 (19.5%)
Something else I will explain in the comments.
6 (4.9%)
Why, yes, I picked up rubbish at the front of my group of units today, in my powerchair. I'd been noticing there was a ton of rubbish around there and it looked icky and I figured it'd only be a 10 minute job to fix up the vast majority of the mess.
It was a very interesting lesson in assumptions made by the general public ... I may have broken some people's brains by exhibiting such unbelievable characteristics as the ability to talk. I hope I made them - and you - think.
Cheers,
Ricky
PS
Feel free to pass this Dreamwidth link around anywhere you want :)
no subject
Date: 2010-05-23 01:25 pm (UTC)and then take her picture that way, power chair and all.
of course, she looks nothing at all like Stephen Hawking ;-)