The Social Experiment

A cryptic flier advertising it

The Social Experiment was an insane venture by Residential Programs in the fall of 2010 whereby it literally bribed students to talk to one another. It was scorned and sneered at by students, campus media, and, naturally, national media.

Basically, everybody got a password, and then you asked people for their password. And then whoever got the most by the end of the event got $500.

So the ISO tried to win it collectively, but lost. And lots of first-years had their NSOP leaders text them out of the blue for their passwords. And then the winner spent the cash on her sorority dues. And instead of fostering organic elevators conversations or something, people just texted/emailed/Facebooked about it. Que sera sera.

RAs were compelled to spam their residents with cryptic emails like the following:

Have you heard about the Social Experiment? You will.
Do you say hello in the elevator? You will.
Do you talk to strangers? You will.
Listen for the Social Experiment. Say hello in the elevator. Talk to strangers.
This is how you will participate.
Do you talk to strangers? You will.
Do you say hello in the elevator? You will.
How are you doing today? Ask and win.
$500 is your prize. Social Experimentation starts the week of November 8th.
Have you heard about the Social Experiment? You have.

External Links

• Bwog's interview with the winners
• City Room's post on it
• a Spec op-ed about why it would fail
• And IvyGate post about Res Life messing the computer part of it up
• Bwog on that computer mess-up
• One of the ambiguous posters that advertised for it
• The Crimson made fun of us
• NYMag made fun of us
• A funny Bwog comment about it