Karen’s Training Log

Random thoughts on human nature

Over the past four street fairs I’ve had the opportunity to watch people and how they react. It’s fascinating. On the table, I place a bowl of candy. It’s there as a “draw” to get people to look at the table. People can be broken down into two sub-groups.

Polite-but-cheap
Apparently their mothers did a good job raising this species to be polite. This group asks if they may take a piece of candy. The answer is alway “Yes, help yourself”. So far not a single one of this group has placed even a penny in the collection jar.

Grab-and-go
This is a very remarkable species. Most do not make eye contact, they simple dart their hand into the bowl, grab a few pieces of candy and make a quick retreat. On rare occasion they will look to see if you are going to reprimand them, and as soon as they see no negative action will be forthcoming, they squirrel away with their treat.

Most interesting to note, the people who made a donation have never taken a piece of candy.