You’re on the bus, and one of the only free seats is next to you. How,
and why, do you stop another passenger sitting there? New research
reveals the tactics commuters use to avoid each other, a practice the
paper published in Symbolic
Interaction describes as ‘nonsocial transient behavior.’
The study was carried out by Esther Kim, from Yale University, who
chalked up thousands of miles of bus travel to examine the unspoken
rules and behaviors of commuters.
Over three years Kim took coach trips across the United States. Kim’s
first trip, between Connecticut and New Mexico, took two days and 17
hours, and this was followed by further adventures from California to
Illinois, Colorado to New York, and Texas to Nevada.
“We live in a world of strangers, where life in public spaces feels
increasingly anonymous,” said Kim. “However, avoiding other people
actually requires quite a lot of effort and this is especially true in
confined spaces like public transport.”
Kim found that the greatest unspoken rule of bus travel is that if other
seats are available you shouldn’t sit next to someone else. As the
passengers claimed, “It makes you look weird”. When all the rows are
filled and more passengers are getting aboard the seated passengers
initiate a performance to strategically avoid anyone sitting next to
them.
“I became what’s known as an experienced traveler and I jotted down many
of the different methods people use to avoid sitting next to someone
else,” said Kim. “We engage in all sorts of behavior to avoid others,
pretending to be busy, checking phones, rummaging through bags, looking
past people or falling asleep. Sometimes we even don a ‘don’t bother me
face’ or what’s known as the ‘hate stare’.”
The best advice from Kim’s fellow passengers was:
• Avoid eye contact with other people
• Lean against the window and stretch out your legs
• Place a large bag on the empty seat
• Sit on the aisle seat and turn on your iPod so you can pretend you
can’t hear people asking for the window seat.
• Place several items on the spare seat so it’s not worth the
passenger’s time waiting for you to move them.
• Look out the window with a blank stare to look crazy
• Pretend to be asleep
• Put your coat on the seat to make it appear already taken
• If all else fails, lie and say the seat has been taken by someone else
“This all changes however when it is announced that the bus will be full
so all seats should be made available,” Kim observed. “The objective
changes, from sitting alone to sitting next to a ‘normal’ person.”
Kim found that race, class, gender and other background characteristics
were not key concerns for commuters when they discovered someone had to
sit next them. They all just wanted to avoid the 'crazy person'.
“One rider told me the objective is just ‘getting through the ride’, and
that I should avoid fat people who may sweat more and so may be more
likely to smell," said Kim. "Motivating this nonsocial behavior is the
fact that one’s own comfort level is the rider’s key concern, rather
than the backgrounds of fellow passengers.”
Kim found that this nonsocial behavior is also driven by safety
concerns, especially for coach travel which is perceived to be dangerous
with ill lit bus stations. Kim also found that passengers expected each
other to be jaded by delays or other inconveniences.
“In a cafe, which is more relaxed, people often ask strangers to watch
their stuff for a moment,” said Kim. “Yet at bus stations that rarely
happens as people assume their fellow passengers will be tired and
stressed out.”
“Ultimately this nonsocial behavior is due to the many frustrations of
sharing a small public space together for a lengthy amount of time,”
concluded Kim. “Yet this deliberate disengagement is a calculated social
action, which is part of a wider culture of social isolation in public
spaces.”
