Free Money

Giving Away Free Money

Specifically, here's what you will do. Take five $1 bills. Go to a public place, and try to give them away. 

In your post, you should first describe your strategy for this exercise:

• Where will you go?

I was traveling to day so I decided to stop at a rest area on I10 to catch some out of towners. My second stop was at Publix in Jacksonville.

• What kind of people will you approach?

I chose to randomly approach male, female, black, white and Hispanic.

• What will you say to get the conversation started?
  My first few attempts I told them I wanted to start a dollar a day give away holiday. That was a miserable fail so I switched my pitch to just feeling generous today.
• What is your plan for the conversation?
  My conversation plan was to try to not be so out of context for the situation. I didn’t really start off with any small talk because it would take the spontaneity out of the situation. It was almost like they felt like they had 10 seconds to make a lifelong decision right on the spot.
• Out of five attempts, how many dollar bills do you think you will be able to give away? 

I thought I would be able to give all five away, but I really thought the more uncomfortable approach was much more interesting.

Second, be sure you record these encounters. It might help to bring along a friend, but your blog post needs to feature at least 2 recordings of your interactions with people. In the blog post, provide the video recordings and describe your results overall. What are your reflections on this exercise? Was giving away a dollar easier or harder than you imagined? Were your predictions correct or incorrect? If they were incorrect, why? What assumptions did you make about the people you planned to talk to, which were wrong?

My overall results were that most people caught off guard and out of context seem to be very guarded and suspicious of why you would give them something for free. What I did find out was if I asked them for money they were more likely to give money away to someone than to actually accept money from a complete stranger.

My reflections on the exercise were it was a lot of fun. I was pretty sure the outcome was going to be as it turned out to be.

I’ve noticed that people are much more willing to help you than to receive help.

 

Sorry the videos are so bad, but I had to put my phone in my pocket.