Running head: GREETING STRANGERS

The Effects of Greeting a Stranger and Their Likelihood of Greeting Others

Melben David, Zachary Tesh, Justin Potwin
University of North Carolina at Charlotte

GREETING STRANGERS

The Effects of Greeting a Stranger and Their Likelihood of Greeting Others

According to N. B. Allen & P. B. T. Badcock (Allen 2003), people react strongly to more
frequent negative social interactions with people. (Kashdan, 2009) If this is true then positive
interactions with people should cause people to be happier and more inclined to be friendlier to
others. In every social encounter with a stranger there are two possible outcomes: to cooperate
(engage in the conversation) or to deflect (lie, cheat, and so on). (Macy, skvoretz, 1998) If
people engage in a positive social interaction anything as simple as a smile can even save
someone who is at high risk for suicide. (Simon, 2007)
The goal of this experiment is to see if greeting an individual will make that individual
happy. Making someone happier could save many lives. Just imagine the amount of tragedies
and shootings that might have been avoided if someone was nice to the shooter. This positive
experiment will prove that greeting an individual will make their day better and make them a
happier person.
Method
Participants
Participants for this experiments were male and females of all ages and all races that are
located at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Participants included 100 people
including sixty-two percent male, and thirty-eight percent female. The participants were diverse
because the experiment was at the maximum effect with demographic diversity. Greeting
different demographics produced different reactions. Having diverse demographics of
participants showed what demographic groups were friendlier or more effected by a friendly

GREETING STRANGERS

greeting. Participants also included the members of our team greeting random participants
around UNC Charlotte.
Measures
The measurements for the experiment consisted of tally marks divided into several
demographic categories including race, gender, and age.
Procedures
The procedure of the experiment consisted of one control experimenter greeting an
individual (participant), then the recorder recorded their reaction. Next, another experimenter
walked by the participant that was just greeted. The recorder recorded whether or not the
participant greeted the second person. This procedure repeated for 100 participants.
Results
Gender
The gender category tested sixty-two males and thirty-eight females adding up to one
hundred total participants. As the testers approached each participant and greeted them, seventyseven percent of participants greeted the tester back. The total number of males greeting back
was forty-four participants and the total number of females greeting back was thirty-three. The
second factor of the experiment was observing how many participants would greet the next
person they see by having a second tester walk by that participant. For the second factor, thirtytwo percent of participants greeted the next person they saw after our tester greeted them.
Race

GREETING STRANGERS

The racial category tested forty-eight white participants, thirty-four African-Americans,

and eighteen participants of all other races. Out of the seventy-seven participants who greeted the
tester back, thirty-nine were white, twenty-four were African-American, and fourteen were other
races. Thirty-nine out of forty-eight white participants greeted back, twenty-four out of thirty
four African-Americans greeted back, and fourteen out of eighteen participants greeted back.
The second factor of the experiment was whether or not the participant would greet the next
person they saw. Out of the forty-eight white participants, only fourteen greeted the next person
they saw after being greeted. Eleven out of thirty-four African-Americans greeted the next
person they saw, and seven out of eighteen participants of other races greeted the next person.
Discussion
The experiment showed that greeting an individual would not guarantee that they will
greet another person. This was shown by the low percentage of participants actually greeting
another person after being greeted themselves. People may be friendly back to the person who
greeted them as the experiment showed with seventy-seven percent of participants greeting back,
but only thirty-two percent of participants actually chose to show the initiative themselves. Some
of the limitations we faced were that we did not have a background history of the participants
and we did not interact with people on different days and at different times.
In conclusion, while greeting a person might make their day better, it will not assure that
they will try to brighten somebody elses day. Some cases will provide otherwise as about only a
third of people continue the greeting trend. Even though it is only thirty-two percent of people
greeting someone else because of their own initiative, without the original initiative, no one
would be greeted.

GREETING STRANGERS

References
Macy, M., Skvoretz, J. (1998, Oct 5). The evolution of trust and cooperation between strangers:
A computational model. American Sociological Association, 63(5), 638-660.
Steger, M., Kashdan, T. (2009, April). Depression and everyday social activity, belonging, and
well-being. National Institute of Health, 56 (2), 289-300.
Simon, R. (2007, May). Just a smile and a hello on the golden gate bridge. The American Journal
of Psychiatry, 164 (5), 720-721.

GREETING STRANGERS

Appendix A
Table A

Total Population
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Male

Female
Total sample population

Table B

Sample Ethnicity
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
White

Black

Other

GREETING STRANGERS

Table C

Greeted Back The First Person

50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Males

Females
Greeted Back The First Person

Table D

Ethnicity
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
White

Black
Ethnicity

Other

GREETING STRANGERS

Table E

Greeted The Second Person

35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Male

Female

Total

Greeted The Second Person

Table F

Ethnicity
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
White

Black
Ethnicity

Other