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Kevin: Hey man, that car is waiting for your
spot
Jon: I hate that, I’m going!
What happened to patience?
Kevin: What are you doing man, c’mon that
car is waiting, lets go
Jon: Yeah, give me a second I can’t text while I
drive
and anyways I was here first he can wait as
long as he wants
Kevin: Why be rude for no reason?
Common I always try to leave as soon as I
can
Jon: That’s not true, ive been in the car with
you so many times and you always make
them wait
Kevin: Whatever man.
Man…that’s not true
Jon: It IS true man, anyone will wait longer
when there is another car there
…it is like instinct…you know, defending your
territory
Kevin: You know, I think the average person is
nicer than that…I think they would leave right
away if someone was waiting, I think YOU’RE
the exception
Jon: Well, you’re the psych major why don’t
you figure it out
Kevin: Alright, I will then. Actually I have a
project coming up for my research methods
class. I’ll let you know the results.
The researchers were concerned that the type
of car waiting, or some behavior of the driver
of that car, might make a difference in the
actions of the people in their first study. To
deal with this they designed an experiment,
they used a low status car, a 1985 Nissan
Maxima, and a high status car, a 1994 Infinity
Q45 or a 1993 Lexus CS400. They had three
levels of intrusion.
1. No intrusion, which means no car was
waiting for the spot.
2. Low intrusion, another car waited four
spaces from and facing the direction of the
departing car.
3. High intrusion, a car waited four spaces
from the departing car, turned on its turn
signal and honked the horn once after the
driver sat behind the wheel. The high status
cars were involved in half of each of the
intrusion conditions and the low status cars
in the other half of the intrusion conditions. An
observer recorded the number of seconds it
took the driver to leave the space after he or
she opened the door.