Free Money

I went outside of Norman between classes. I approached people who looked like they were in a hurry or preoccupied yet looked nice enough to accept or kindly decline my money. I approached them and said hello and I then told them, “I was given a dollar and told to pay it forward. Will you continue this and pass it on?” At this point, the customer either declined or accepted. Going into this assignment, I thought that not many people would accept. They would disregard my approaching them or say “no thank you.” However, when I came up with my reason of paying it forward, I began to think that with a legitimate cause, they would accept and continue to pass on the dollar. Out of the videos I have included, one girl sitting on the brick wall on her phone quietly accepted, while another girl looked confused but said yes. I also approached a tall male who looked at my friend filming me, said yes, but then handed it back to me. My friend and I discussed whether this was because he felt he needed to give the dollar back to me, or because his way of paying it forward was to me. Either way, I was alarmed as can be seen in the video. No other students said no to my request.

I actually really enjoyed this, partly because I began to have people pay it forward, which I think is a great thing while also experiencing what its like to approach people solely for the reason of persuading them into doing something. Giving away a dollar was slightly awkward. College students, generally, are frugal so I think seeing a girl walking around giving away money was strange to other people. My predictions were correct, that with a reason like this, I think the students were more likely to accept.