As soon as I put on the mask I lost my identity, and along with it, my comfort. Our group decided to intervene by having a masked figure stand out in a public space at night. The masked figure was handing out “Good Luck” cards to encourage people to do well on their final exams. We started with around ten cards, and after hours passed, we still had five. The masked man was being completely ignored even though he was trying to promote positive intentions. We filmed from hidden locations and observed everyone who ignored the masked man. Due to incorrect judgment, false sense of security, and gender stereotypes our subject of encouragement was being ignored, simply because of the environment he was in and how he appeared out of the ordinary.
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We wanted the bypassers to look at our figure and not be able to recognize it. This made people have to think on their feet and come up with a conclusion of why the person was standing in the open. The first thought on people 's mind was not that he was trying to encourage them on their finals, it was that he was a threat. Media is a key factor in why people’s minds go straight to labeling the figure as dangerous. The media commonly displays horrible acts done by people who are out of the ordinary. Media tends to only show the bad side of things and subliminally roots our mind with corruption. In an article written by Robert Entman, a scholar who graduated from Duke, he researched the media 's affect on humans and states “if the media (or anyone) can affect what people think about- the information they process- the media can affect their attitudes.” This means that if the media negatively portrays an image of an out of the ordinary male being threatening, the public will assume these characteristics relate to aggression. Our figure was being diverted from because bypassers wanted to be safe. Due to their accusation that the man in the mask was aggressive, they intentionally took routes to distance themselves from him. This can be further associated with incorrect judgments when our figure was asked if he was a “murderer.” Our subject was being classified as a murderer, but he was still approached. It was clear in the females actions that she wasn’t scared of the masked figure but she still had some determined mindset that he was a murderer. Ultimately, the positive attitude we were trying to portray was being overshadowed with the negative judgement influence by the
We wanted the bypassers to look at our figure and not be able to recognize it. This made people have to think on their feet and come up with a conclusion of why the person was standing in the open. The first thought on people 's mind was not that he was trying to encourage them on their finals, it was that he was a threat. Media is a key factor in why people’s minds go straight to labeling the figure as dangerous. The media commonly displays horrible acts done by people who are out of the ordinary. Media tends to only show the bad side of things and subliminally roots our mind with corruption. In an article written by Robert Entman, a scholar who graduated from Duke, he researched the media 's affect on humans and states “if the media (or anyone) can affect what people think about- the information they process- the media can affect their attitudes.” This means that if the media negatively portrays an image of an out of the ordinary male being threatening, the public will assume these characteristics relate to aggression. Our figure was being diverted from because bypassers wanted to be safe. Due to their accusation that the man in the mask was aggressive, they intentionally took routes to distance themselves from him. This can be further associated with incorrect judgments when our figure was asked if he was a “murderer.” Our subject was being classified as a murderer, but he was still approached. It was clear in the females actions that she wasn’t scared of the masked figure but she still had some determined mindset that he was a murderer. Ultimately, the positive attitude we were trying to portray was being overshadowed with the negative judgement influence by the