Respect for the Retired

The aim of the project was to reinstate the social norm of offering up one's seat on a bus to an elderly passenger. From observation, one can see that this once social norm is disappearing. Indeed, as a control condition I observed passengers at a bus stop in Coventry. During this control condition I recorded that a mere 12% of young people offered their seat to an elderly passenger. This left the older person standing for the length of the journey, or having to make their way to the top floor of the bus. In order to encourage people to engage in the pro-social behaviour of offering their seat to an elderly passenger, two posters were created. 

Poster one (below) was placed at a bus stop in Binley, Coventry. The introduction of this poster saw our target behaviour (of young people offering up their bus seat to an elderly passenger) increase by 42%, compared to the control condition.

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A week after the introduction of the first poster, I placed poster two (below) at the same bus stop. Poster two, on the other hand, only increased the target behaviour by 31%, compared to the control condition. 

The two images below, show the posters placed at the bus stop. 

Shannon Flynn

Anjali Kapoor

Diana Lee