Social Experiment

Earlier this afternoon I conducted a random experiment on you guys, my friemds. It came out of 2 things - boredom, and having some phone credit to use up.

AIM
To investigate the response received from friends when sent a random, unprovoked friendly greeting

HYPOTHESIS
50% (10 from 20) people will respond. The responses will be varied from a greeting returned to confusion. Also expect the greeting to stimulate a conversation with at least half of the respondents. Nick will not reply.

METHOD
The experiment involved the sending of a friendly greeting - "just saying hi" - to 20 random people in my phone. Guys, girls, different friendship circles, family members.

RESULTS
Of the 20 recipients of the greeting, 14 (70%) responded, as follows:

1. "Hi."
2. "Hi!"
3. "Hi. Was that meant 4 me. Everything ok?"
4. "Cheers. Shouldnt you be working?? I AM!......Just one more sleep to a massive night. But while Im thinking you interested in golf tomorrow?"
5. "Ok then, hi, wat r u up 2? im just doing my last packing coz i leave 4 canada 2morrow"
6. "Why?"
7. "You're a douchebag"
8. "What are you on mate? what's up?"
9. "Hi."
10. "Who is it?"
11. "Lol has someone else got ur phone, or are u just being the lovely & friendly guy u are?"
12. "Hi!"
13. "HI SAM!"
14. "SORRY BUT I'VE GOT NO NAME TO GO WITH THIS NUMBER. SO WHO MIGHT I BE SAYING HEY TO?"

DISCUSSION
Of the 20 individuals who received the greeting, 14 (70%) responded with some sort of response, 4 more than hypothesised. Of those 14, 7 (1,2,3,5,9,12,13) contained a greeting back. 5 (3,4,5,8,11) contained some sort of conversation, not quite the half as hypothesised. The conversations were interesting though, ranging from a request for a leisurely hit of golf (4), to concern for my well being (3). 7 (3,5,6,8,10,11,14) of the responses contained some hint of confusion with a further 2 (7,8) containing some form of insult. Interestingly, 2 (10,14) didnt have my number in their phone casting doubt onto the friendship between us. Importantly, though, they still responded unlike the 6 others who refused to respond. One of those was Nick.

CONCLUSION
An unprovoked friendly greeting will generate a response from a fairly large number of recipients of the greeting. The responses will be varied, ranging from a returned greeting to confusion and insults. Nick will not return a friendly greeting.