Psychology of Nonverbal Behaviour

The Cafe Experiment: A One-Page Report (90 marks) A study by Staats and Groot (2019) found that university students in the Netherlands would prefer a seat at a café that was at a larger distance to other café goers in a hypothetical café experiment (see Study 1). The researchers also hypothesised that participants would choose a seat that did not facilitate eye contact with another café goer, but they did not find significant results for this hypothesis (Staats & Groots, 2019). Read Study 1 of Staats and Groot’s (2019) experiment here: https://www(dot)frontiersin(dot)org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00331/full Choose a Starbucks café of your choice (or equivalent) while you do your work alone and observe the choices of where others choose to sit in the cafe. You should strive to observe a minimum of 5 people. Recognise the role of proxemics and nonverbal behaviours in the choice of seats for café goers. Observe and analyse whether people will: A. Choose to sit at a table that is or a larger distance to other café goers. B. Choose a seat that did not facilitate eye contact with another café goer. Present your answers concisely in a one-page report on MS Word, clearly listing the following headings in point form statements: 1) Introduction: State when and where you did your cafe experiment and the total number of people you observed, together with a breakdown by gender. 2) Observations: Identify if the people you observed chose options A and/or B and use further observations of the following nonverbal behaviours to supplement your answers. • Facial Expressions (e.g., dominant types and emotions commonly displayed) • Posture • Gaze • Proxemics Please note that for this Observations section, you should focus on providing a concise summary that describes each of the nonverbal behaviours listed above for all the 5 café goers you observed and keep the analysis and explanations to the next section. 3) Discussion: Clearly and concisely, explain if you found the same results as Staats and Groot’s Study 1 (2019). Appraise the reasons for the similarities and/or differences from Staats and Groot’s Study 1 (2019) and use good research evidence to support your claims (with in- text citations).