Sociology experiments (Dance Rat’s Stash)
As some of you know, I’m an avid Swing Dancer. Here in Milwaukee we have the luxury of dancing in the streets at a variety of fairs and festivals all summer long. This item was posted on the Milwaukee Swing Dance forum, CCSwing.com, and outlines for new members how we manage our personal property when we dance in the streets. This is an example of process used to change behavior. Examples from clients are often too revealing, so this is one way I can demonstrate the principles I use.
Dance Stash
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I thought I’d talk about the Dance Rat’s Stash at public venues since we have enough newcomers who may not realize the value of this tip.
When we go to a public venue, and have our bags filled with shoes, water, sweaters, change of shirt, towels, etc., keeping our things safe is a concern since we can�t dance with purses and bags.
The solution is a dance stash: We pick a spot and everyone leaves their things together in the stash.
The keys to a good stash are:
Pick a visible spot. The back of the audience is not a good spot, in front of the stage apron is a good spot. The best stashes allow the audience as well as the dancers on the dance floor to see the stash.
Keep everything tightly together so there is no doubt our bags are together.
Once you have an obvious stash, the entire pile is protected from pilfering.
No one disturbs a stash except the owners, because it is so visible. For us, there is lots of traffic in and out of the stash as members retrieve items they need. But even if we didn’t touch the stash for an entire set, it would still be unattractive to the nefarious types (excepting of course, our very own nefarious types among the dance rats!) because it has so many owners and is too visible.
This is probably from Stanley Milgram, though my undergraduate degree is so long ago that I can�t remember exactly where I learned this. Heck! Maybe I invented it! No matter. It works.
Stanley Milgram was the Sociologist famous for his on-campus experiments on morality, responsibility and community. (You’ve probably heard about “Six Degrees of Separation” which was proven by a couple of mathematicians at Penn State, and popularized by Stanley Milgram when he had a graduate class perform an experiment to demonstrate the theory.)
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