Can Smiling Influence Environmental Engagement? A Smile Experiment Among Bus Commuters

Research Hypothesis and Operational Definitions

Question:

Consider this research question: Can smiling influence environmental engagement?  Using APA writing style, address the following: 

(1) Formulate a testable hypothesis. Write operational definitions to support your research hypothesis and observations (positive, negative, neutral).
(2) Determine and describe how you will record your data & what type of data you have extracted from the experiment?
(3) Record your observations (positive, negative, neutral). Analyze your data, drawing conclusions about any patterns you noted during your experiment.
(4) Report/describe your findings.
(5) Write a conclusion supporting or rejecting your hypothesis.

A smile is an event that is encouraged by the sensory corridors of the human begins. The process is supported by transfer of emotions to the brains and it does last typically from a second to four seconds (Abel and Kruger, 2010). Smiling back at individuals is a phenomenon that is witnessed due to the human nature of mirroring the actions.
There have been several studies on psychological behavior of individuals in stressful situations. These studies range from measuring social empathy to social motives based on several patterns such as individual behavior, social interactions, facial expressions, mimicking the group expressions, etc. There also has been significant research on smiling experiments in different content and situations (Frank and Helen, 2008). Psychologist describes this phenomenon ‘Smile’ as stimulation of the various facial muscles with emotions and memories associated with the past events (Jakobs et al., 1999).

The Research Hypothesis involved in this study revolves around measuring the social empathy (of smiling back) displayed by randomly selected ten ordinary bus travelers during the rush hour on their way to their respective workplaces. The following are the operational definitions that would support the obtained research hypothesis and observations involved in this smile experiment-

Positive Hypothesis- People giving friendly reactions like smiling back, greeting back or showing positive body language, upon the implementation of this experiment, would be termed as Positive hypothesis for this experiment
Negative Hypothesis – Negative reactions, both verbal and non verbal including negative comments and facial expressions derived from the people upon the implementation of this experiment, would be termed as Negative hypothesis for this experiment.
Neutral Hypothesis – People not responding at all in any of the above mentioned positive or negative manner, upon the implementation of this experiment, would be termed as neutral hypothesis for this experiment.
The study conducted attempts to measure the simple and ordinary etiquette of smiling back at smiling faces, among the working class people, when they are in a bit hurry to rush to their offices during the peak morning hours. 

The study involved primary observation of the randomly selected ten office going bus commuters who were in the age group of twenty to forty years. A crowded bus stop located at a city center was selected for conducting this experiment. The participants to this experiment were first identified by me from a distance at the bus stop and their gender and approximate ages were being noted. Any specific appearance or traits displayed from the body language of these commuters were also noted. The template for data recording was already kept ready before starting with the experiment. It appeared in the following manner:

Participant No.	Gender	Approximate Age	Body Language	Description of his/her reaction	Hypothesis
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Data Collection Method

The smile experiment was conducted by briefly smiling at each and every participant for two seconds and by giving eye contact to every participant. This was possible as the experimenter (myself) managed to take a position right in front of the queue of commuter who were about to board a bus. 

There was a single independent variable involved in the study that was waiting in a queue of commuters for the bus. The variety of facial expressions and verbal and non-verbal reactions following the experimenter’s smile were all dependent variables involved in this smile experiment.

The following is the data extracted and noted in this short experiment:

Participant No.	Gender	Approximate Age	Body Language	Description of his/her reaction	Hypothesis
1.	Male	25 years	Impatient to board the bus	started half a second and boarded his bus	Neutral
2.	Male	30 years	Was in good mood	Confused facial expression and was stubborn	Neutral
3.	Female	35 years	Hefty Woman Busy talking on Cell phone	Smiled and Greeted a warm hello with hand shake	Positive
4.	Male	20 years	Was in great hurry	Smiled  and waved ‘hi ‘	Positive
5.	Female	20 years	Was relaxed and chitchatting	Avoided Eye contact and blank expressions	Neutral
6.	Female	25 years	Was relaxed and chitchatting	Avoided Eye contact and blank expressions	Neutral
7.	Male	40 years	Was looking dull and tired	Gave feeble Smile	positive
8.	Male	40 years	Was busy texting	Gave Broad Smile and boarded	Positive
9.	Male	30 years	Had Nervous looks	Gave rude and angry expressions	Negative
10.	Male	40 years	Was Cheerful	Gave a Brief Reflex smile	Positive

This raw data extracted is further analyzed, discussed and presented in the observations and analysis section of this short paper. 

The following are some of the prominent observations at the Bus Stop while conducting the Smile experiment with the Strangers, who were regularly travelling to their respective offices using bus Transport:
1. Three of the commuters standing in a queue and about to board their Office Bus, smiled back as a reflex action.
This reflex action of Smiling back was observed to be very much natural by the three out of the ten commuters. These commuters seemed to be in genuine good mood and were looking forward to reach their workplace.
2. Two of the Commuters smiled back thinking that I was an old acquaintance that they might have forgotten my appearance and name.
The broad smile on the face of these commuters made it clear that it was not just a casual expression of smiling back, but this was a broad smile given to a known person. One of these individuals also waved a ‘hi’ from a distance and quickly boarded his bus.
3. Two of the Commuters standing in the Bus queue, avoided eye contact at me while I was smiling at them.
Two of the commuters, belonging to the fairer sex, had anticipated that I was going to smile at them as I was smiling at the others at the Bus Stop queue. These two beautiful girls were murmuring something among themselves. And finally both of them with blank expressions on their faces boarded their respective buses and totally avoided eye contact with me, while I kept smiling at them.
4. One of the commuters gave rude and angry expression on his face as a response to my genuine smile.
This hefty man seemed to be really late for his work and he was constantly checking his watch, and my genuine smile further enraged him. He must have mistaken my natural smile to be a mocking one for his delay to his office.
5. One of the other commuters gave confused facial expressions to be as I smiled to him.
This commuter seemed to be cooling headed and right in his senses. He was probably reaching early to his office and was not at all frustrated in the morning rush hour. A confused expression filled his face as I smiled at him. He did to take the efforts to smile back at me, as remained stubborn.
6. One of the stranger came forward and greeted me a warm ‘Hello’
Smiling at strangers at the Bus Stop often was mistaken as an invitation that was unwanted from my side. One of the commuters did step aside from the queue that he was standing, and gave a firm handshake and ‘hello’ to me as a response to my brief smile. I did not know how to handle this situation and almost fled from the situation. 

Most of the passengers were in hurry to rush to their workplace, but still each of them reacted very much differently. Some of the Researchers those who earlier experimented with smiles and facial expressions have observed that smiles are resulted when positive emotions are emerged from the sensory organs of the individuals, resulting in to a unique signs of positivism and job, commonly known as smiles (McVeigh, 2014).
The following are the key finding/results of this Smile experiment:
Positive Hypothesis – Five individuals (Strangers) out of ten individuals (Strangers) smiled back at the experimenter. This clearly showed a positive Hypothesis ratio of 5/10 that is 0.5.
Negative Hypothesis – One of the individuals out of the ten individuals (all strangers to the experimenter) gave hard looks and angry expressions on his face as a response to the smile given by the experimenter. This measures a negative hypothesis of one on ten, which is 0.1
Neutral Hypothesis – Four out of ten stranger individuals at the bus stop did not react to the smile given by the experimenter, to each of these individuals. This measures the neutral hypothesis of 4/10 that is 0.4. 

(5) Conclusion

We may conclude from this experiment that the age factor and physical appearance of these participants to experiments were no were related to the facial or body language reactions that the participants gave as a response to the smile by the experimenter. The factor which played a prominent role in the success or failure of the hypothesis was the state of mind of these individuals. The surroundings for this experiment were chosen to be a bus stop at the rush hour. This made the commuters left with hardly any time and energy to identify the opposite person smiling back at the individuals. Most of these strangers were in hurry to reach their workplace identifying the buses they were supposed to board. This made the positive and neutral reactions exceed in this smile experiment.

References

• Abel E. and Kruger M. (2010). Smile Intensity in Photographs Predicts
  Longevity, Psychological Science, 21, 542–544.
• Frank C.P. and Helen A. (2008). When Strangers Meet. Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science. Vol. 42 (4). pp 370-388.
• Glanz K, Bishop D. (2010).  The role of behavioral science theory in development and implementation of public health interventions.  Annual Revenue Public Health 31: 399-418.
• Jakobs, Esther, Manstead, Antony S.R., Fischer, Agneta H. (1999). Social Motives and Emotional Feelings as Determinants of Facial Displays: The Case of Smiling. Pers Soc Psychol Bull, 25, 4 424-435
• McVeigh Tracy (2014). Neighbors are asked to smile as part of social experiment in UK communities. The Guardian. Retrieved on January 7^th 2014, from https://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/10/neighbours-asked-smile-experiment-local-communities.