Bummin' A Smoke....

Social Forums Non-Philosophical Chat
1

So, I found a notebook in this old storage bin that I had when I was fourteen.

That’s already odd because I am notoriously bad at keeping stuff.

Anyway, it appears that from June '98 to September '98 I did a study:

When I was poor, (obviously not of legal age to work) I did the best I could to do odd jobs and keep a penny in my pocket, but occasionally, you run out of money and you need to bum a smoke. Cigarettes were about $2.39/pack for Marlboros at the time. What I did was I got interested in success rates of attempting to bum this smoke when I started offering to buy the cigarettes from people instead. So what I did was I carried around fifty cents with me at all times just in case I got called on it.

I asked to bum a smoke from 100 people and offered them nothing.

I asked to buy a smoke from 100 people for $0.50.

I automatically discluded anyone that inquired about my age while making the decision whether or not to bum me the smoke.

Out of the 100 people to whom I offered nothing, 65 declined, 33 gave me the smoke I asked for, and 2 gave me multiple cigarettes.

Out of the 100 people to whom I offered fifty cents, 8 declined for unspecified reasons, 12 said they did not have enough cigarettes left to sell me any, 55 gave me the cigarette (but told me to keep my fifty cents) 15 gave me multiple cigarettes and told me to keep my fifty cents, 6 asked for a quarter saying fifty cents was too high, and four just took the fifty cents and gave me a cigarette.

So, when I didn’t offer to buy cigarettes:

33/100 gave me one cigarette (free)
2/100 gave me multiple cigarettes (free)
65/100 did not give me any

But, when I did offer to buy the cigarettes:

20/100 total people declined
55/100 gave me a cigarette (free)
15/100 gave me multiple cigarettes (free)
6/100 gave me the cigarette at a lower price
4/100 gave me the cigarette at the suggested terms

Exactly 2X the amount of people gave me a cigarette (s) for free when I offered to pay!!!

Might this mean anything at all from a Social Sciences or Psychology standpoint?

Thoughts?

2

That’s interesting but not surprising. Most people believe in virtue.

Suckers.

3

My first thought is that by offering to pay for the smoke, there is some sort of upshot in terms of social status.

People would respect you more.

Today some random guy asked me to trade one of his crappy cigarettes for one of my tailor made cigs. i gave him two free cigarettes on the grounds that i used to bum smokes A LOT.

There is also the fact, in addition to seeming more credible and respectable, that you really desire the cigarette.

Sympathy among smokers is strong i wager.

4

Yeah, you guys are spot on when it comes to virtue and respect.

I also think that you are right about the sympathy among smokers, as well. Someone that offers fifty cents for one is a smoker, someone that asks for one for free is a dude that wants a cigarette.

I should have asked all of the people who declined to give me a free one if they would give it to me for fifty cents to see if that worked, but I must not have thought of it at the time.

5

virtue…

naw, keep your money, suck on this cancer stick and die for free…

that is virtuous indeed…

-Imp

6

If we avoided everything that could kill us, then we’d already be dead.

7

Smoking kills. [-X

Haha, I’m just joking; I’m not too innocent either, but, it’s an interesting topic but, as already mentioned, not all too surprising.

8

Yeah, agree with all the comments re. virtue/smoker’s bond etc.

Imp - you are too too funny sometimes. :smiley:

9

It’s funny I read this randomly right after posting a topic about Freakonomics. I’d say it’d be much harder to get a smoke now but anyway. There was a funny little study about a kindergarden in Israel. They found that some parents were always coming in late and the teachers were having to stay. So what they did was they charged 3$ for every time the parent came late to penalize the parents coming in late and encourage punctuality. Funny thing is that they actually saw an increase in the number of parents coming in late as they no longer had that guilt associated with coming in late. They may be late, but they were also paying for it. So, virtue just right.