What once was a busy intersection for hungry OU students became as motionless as a graveyard Thursday.
About 30 students gathered at the ground floor of Baker University Center and stood immobile for a total of 15 minutes.
Passersby quickly pulled out their cell phones to snap photos of the scene.
After standing like statues in the same position, the cluster of students clapped and then dispersed as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.
The event was an experiment conducted by Alan Grigsby’s Sociology 101 class.
Alex Moneypenny, a sophomore who hasn’t yet decided on a major, was one of Grigsby’s “statues.”
“The purpose of the project was to go against the normal routine of what we would do in our daily lives to see what people’s reactions would be,” Moneypenny said.
Megan Gibbs, a freshman studying special education, also took part in the experiment. Gibbs said the goal of the experiment was to see what people would do when her class went against social norms.
While Moneypenny and Gibbs stood still for 15 minutes, some students zigzagged around them and others snapped photos of their class.
“I thought it was kind of funny how people were pulling out their cells phones and taking pictures because they thought it was a flash mob,” Moneypenny said. “People would awkwardly walk by and stare at us, and it was cool to watch their reactions.”
Leanne Painley, a junior studying anthropology, was standing at her bake sale booth to raise money for the Habitat for Humanity when the experiment occurred.
“I haven’t witnessed anything like it before,” Painley said. “At first, I thought it was a flash mob and got really excited. I thought it was funny how they all clapped at the end, though.”
bc822010@ohiou.edu
