2|6 CHAPTER 9

OBSERVING BEHAVIOR UPDATE

Given the fact that observing behavior is such a basic E-B research method, it is
not surprising that many researchers and designers have refined and expanded the
method. Among these changes are the use of behavioral observation as a fine-
scale precise method (Moser and Corroyer, 2001; Passini et al., 1999), recording
behaviors in situ with tape recorded commentaries (Naser and Jones, 1997;
Passini et al., 1999), handheld pre—coded PDAs (Olsen et al., 2000), or comput-
ers (Devlin and Bernstein, 1997), and applying behavior observation in commer-
cial settings (Underhill, 2000).

0 Fine-scale observation. Moser and Corroyer’s analysis of door opening
behavior as an indicator of politeness in Paris and Nantes provides an excellent
example of a fine-tuned behavioral observation method. These French
researchers precisely define the behavior they are studying and then carefully
use observation data gathering techniques in three parallel real-world settings—-
two sets of doors in Paris, one at the BHV department store near the Place de
Beaubourg a second at a Galleries Lafayette department store in Montparnasse,
and a third at a Galleries Lafayette in the provincial city of Nantes. After
recording descriptive demographics of each subject, the researchers observed
whether the previous person within a precise time span held open the door for
the next person (the situational context), and then whether or not the actual
subject held open the door for the next person entering the store. When the ini-
tial politeness led to a second similar polite act, they considered politeness to be
contagious, like a virus.

Moser and Corroyer’s precise observation protocol began with the
observer standing in front of the entrance to the store and selecting distance and
ideal angle to ensure that nothing would be missed in observing the target
behavior. Each time a participant corresponding to a pre-set operational defini-
tion approached the door, his or her behavior with respect to the person follow-
ing was noted if at least one other person was four to six steps behind.

The research team recorded 880 observations in this careful and precise
way, 480 in Paris—an urban settingwand 400 in provincial Nantes. In Paris
they found that if the person before you holds the door open for you—is
polite—you tend more often to do the same thing for the person following you
whether that person is a man or a woman. Politeness may be contagious in the
city. On the other hand, in the provincial town, people are more polite in gen—
eral—holding the door open whether or not the person preceding them did so.
Not surprisingly, when the density of shoppers rises, everyone is less polite and
the contagious nature of civility breaks down in both Paris and Nantes.

On-the-spot tape recording during behavioral observation was employed
by both Naser and Jones in their study of landscapes of fear and stress on the
Ohio State University campus (1997) and Passini in his study of people living
with Alzheimer’s finding their way in a Montreal Hospital (1999). Both studies
focus on subjects’ reactions to moving through a planned sequence of spaces—
a campus walk in one case and a series of hospital wayfinding tasks in the other.