Hugging, the project

Free Hugs @ UW-Madison

On Tuesday, December 6, 2011 I stood in library from 11 – 1:30 with a free hug sign and completed my project.  By doing this, there were a variety of observations that I made that affected me, the individuals who saw me, and the importance of my project.

The free hugs campaign was one of the most awkward things that I had ever done.  I stood in the cold for two and a half hours holding a sign that openly invited people to come up and hug me.  A classmate, Carmen, decided to join me, but that did not help with feeling of nervousness that I had as my classmates passed by me wondering what I was doing.  When I started the project, I made the decision that it would not be appropriate for me to talk to people or try to verbally encourage them to give me a hug.  If I were to do this, then I would be aiding them make a decision.  Free Hugs, to me, is all about people evaluating their current happiness and deciding that they need a hug, without being coaxed into giving a hug.  They have to feel that the hug was right for them, that they wanted to do it.  By not talking, the degree of awkwardness was multiplied because I could not joke away what I was doing.  I tried to explain the real purpose of my hugging and wanted limited my explanations to “It was Tuesday” as the reason that I was standing in the cold.  When I presented this project to my friends and classmates, it seemed as if there would  surely be a degree of dismissal by the people that I was attempting to hug.  It is not commonplace that a person wants to hug you, so I was entirely anticipating an incredible amount of rejection.  Much to my surprise, rejection was not the most common of the three reactions that I noticed, which gave me quite a bit of confidence.  I believe that everything in life has a lesson or benefit for every person and I was not without benefits on free hug day.  Apart from the obvious benefits of the hugs, I learned a small amount of confidence, as I had to fight off the feeling of awkwardness of soberly hugging random strangers.  From this experiment, I feel that I am capable of injecting myself into a wider variety of social situations, because I had interface with so many people as I was hugging them on that day.

The subjects of my project, or the people who walked through library mall between 11 and 1:30 on 12/6/2011 can be categorized into three distinct groups.  Each group reacted in a certain way that is easily characterized.  An astonishing observation is that the three groups of people that I had encountered on FreeHug day did not follow any social stereotype.  The members of each group spanned the breath of gender and age backgrounds, much to my surprise.

The first group that I noticed is the group of people who gave me hugs.  There were a variety of hugs given, which included bro-hugs, single pat, full embrace, and one very excitable girl who jumped into my arms.  Like I said before, I tried to limit the influence that I had on the decision that people made to give me a hug, so these people chose to come up to me.  Some of them had a less difficult decision than others, because I previously knew them, but out of the hundreds of people that I saw in the two and a half hour span, I received nearly 90 hugs.  All of these people had made the decision that a free hug was worth their time and the benefits that would be gained superseded the awkwardness of hugging a random person with a sign.  These people generally came up to me with a smile and left with a smile, suggesting that I had either given them a reason to be happy or I was able to perpetuate a happy thought.  They often said good things, which proved that they were happy with my project and that it was truly useful as a tool to make people happier.

The second group of people that I encountered was the ones who smiled at me, but did not come up for a hug.  I think that they elected to do this because they felt that it would be too awkward to hug someone or they did not have the time to stop.  While I was giving my free hugs, I tried to watch the facial expressions of everyone that passed by in order to determine what they thought of my free hug giving.  When I initially began thinking of this project, I thought that the only people who would receive benefits would be the people that I hugged, but as it turns out the effects of hugging went beyond the physical action.  I could positively affect a person’s day by the mere suggestion of something good.  This is incredible, because it reinforced the belief that an “idea” is all that a person needs to make another person happy (I think that I am going to use this as justification as to why I do not buy any Christmas gifts this year, he he.)

The final group of people that I noticed while giving out free hug consisted of people who either did not understand why I was doing it, or did not appreciate it.  Several people had disgusted looks on their faces as they passed me.  There was a group of girls who decided that it was appropriate to audibly ridicule me as they walked by.  I feel like there are two reasons that these people did not appreciate what I was doing.  First, it was unknown to them and people generally fear the unknown because they do not want to give the time or energy to understand it.  The second was that they did not believe that freehugs were either effective or socially acceptable.  Unfortunately, there is not much I can do about their perception of accepted social norms.  These people did not distract anyone from what I was doing and it should be accepted that not everyone will appreciate what you are doing.  There are a variety of reasons why someone would choose to not appreciate hugs, so those people have to be targeted in a more specific way.

An accidentally late introduction with a hug

Kevin Bereswill

ILS 252

Professor Brandner

23 November 2011

Final Project Introduction

 

Introduction:

For the past seven semesters, I have met an astonishing number of amazing people.  I have met people from all over the world, with different experiences and incredible abilities.  Students on this campus will strive to be doctors, lawyers, musicians, scientists, and teachers.  I truly believe that everyone has the potential to reach their goals.  The University has judged us worthy of academic pursuit, providing us with the best opportunity available to pursue our dreams.  It often seems however, that the only hindrance in our ambitions is ourselves.  The choices that we make can negatively affect what we accomplish.  In some situations, there are extraordinary circumstances that impede our progress.  However, in most cases, the things that distract us are small.  Everyone has a bad day or a bad experience that, if dwelled upon, can ruin our ambition and destroy our potential.  My project is designed to identify and promote things that make people’s lives happier.  I want to do this for two reasons.  The first reason is that I ultimately believe that happier people are more productive.  If irrelevant distractions can be eliminated from someone’s life, then they will have more time to focus on what they truly want to accomplish.  If no one distracts Sally from thinking about the terrible things that Bobby said to her, Sally will continue to dwell on it, distracting her from her thoughts and her studies.  If a person becomes happy, then their problems will fade away as they realize that there are more important things in life.  The second reason that I want to discover a way to make people happy is that I believe that it fosters a better environment for learning.  Happier people, in my experience are more likely to talk to other people.  This will lead to a greater spread of ideas and experiences, ultimately creating a stronger, more diverse campus.  As referenced in Max Haller’s “How social relations and structures can produce happiness and unhappiness: An International comparative Analysis,” there is conclusive evidence that shows that happier people have more rewarding and productive relationships.  The paper shows that happier couples have a greater potential for success over a longer period of time.  By enabling people to have better, stronger relationships, we will be able to create a more successful campus.  [1]

 

How:

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been reading about what makes people happy and how to accomplish this.  Eventually, I stumbled on the “Free Hugs Campaign[2].”  Free Hugs Campaign is a worldwide movement that aims to make people happier by giving out free hugs.  The movement has spread across continents, helping to improve the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of people.  By creating a Free Hugs Campaign at Madison for a day, I hope to improve the lives of people in a couple of ways.  First, I want to allow them the opportunity to distract themselves from whatever is bothering them that day.  Second, I want people to help contribute to the creation of a better campus

 

Why:

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that is responsible for providing a positive reinforcement when an action is done.  It is important because it is one of the chemicals in your brain that makes you “feel good.”  Though your body naturally produces this neurotransmitter, there are only certain actions that can cause this to be released.  One of the actions that can cause the body to release dopamine is physical contact. [3]  Because many types of physical contact are not socially acceptable to do to strangers, a free hugs campaign is the most prudent means of causing the release of physical contact induced dopamine.

So, you might be asking why a free hugs campaign would be effective at making people happy?  Studies have shown that there are many benefits of living a happy life.  Many of these benefits are relevant to the lives of college students, so by increasing the happiness of students I will be able to positively affect their lives.

The first benefit that is reaped from a high degree of happiness is physical health.  Studies have shown that there is relationship between the health of a person and how happy they are[4].  In this study, there are several variables that can affect physical health, which are, unfortunately, beyond my control.  However, by increasing someone’s happiness level, I can provide a change in mood that could hopefully lead to a healthier life, which can cause in overall rise in a person’s quality of life.

The second benefit derives from positives that are associated with a happier life.  Happier people generally have fewer things to worry about, because they are in a positive state of mind.  People with a positive state of mind tend to be more productive.  Increased productivity is a quality strongly desired by university students.

The third direct benefit that would be realized by an increased amount of dopamine would be an increase in memory capacity.  Happiness creates relationships to experiences, allowing a person to better recall information that was absorbed.  [5]

Conclusion

When considering this project, there were a variety of directions that I considered.  Ultimately, I decided that was infeasible to try to do a project that would have society wide effects.  To better improve my experience here, it is important to target the people that I work with every day.  If they are happier, then the campus environment will be better.  This project is also time sensitive.  A free hugs campaign has to be a novel idea, something that people do not come to expect.  In order to evoke true happiness, you have to have an element of surprise.  Acknowledging this, I understand the limitations to the project cause it to only change the lives of people on one day.  That’s all that we need though.  Pay it forward, Badgers.

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[1] Haller, Max, and Markus Hadler. “How Social Relations and Structures Can Produce Happiness and Unhappiness: An International Comparative Analysis.” Social Indicators Research 75.2 (2006): 169-216. Print.

[2] http://www.freehugscampaign.org/

[3] Ng, K. Y., T. N. Chase, R. W. Colburn, and I. J. Kopin. “Dopamine: Stimulation-Induced Release from Central Neurons.” Science 172.3982 (1971): 487-89. Print.

[4] Cornellise-Vermaat, Judith R., Gerrit Antonides, Johan Van Ophem, and Henriette Maassen Van Den Brink. “Body Mass Index, Perceived Health, and Happiness: Their Determinants and Structural Relationships.” Social Indicators Research 79.1 (2006): 143-58. JSTOR. Web. <http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/stable/pdfplus/27522631.pdf&gt;.

[5] Undrill, Guy. “What Remains Of Oedipus? Part Objects Beyond The Pleasure Principle.” British Journal of Psychotherapy 17.3 (2001): 372-81. Print.

 

Works Cited

Cornellise-Vermaat, Judith R., Gerrit Antonides, Johan Van Ophem, and Henriette Maassen Van Den Brink. “Body Mass Index, Perceived Health, and Happiness: Their Determinants and Structural Relationships.” Social Indicators Research 79.1 (2006): 143-58. JSTOR. Web. <http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.wisc.edu/stable/pdfplus/27522631.pdf&gt;.

Haller, Max, and Markus Hadler. “How Social Relations and Structures Can Produce Happiness and Unhappiness: An International Comparative Analysis.” Social Indicators Research 75.2 (2006): 169-216. Print.

Ng, K. Y., T. N. Chase, R. W. Colburn, and I. J. Kopin. “Dopamine: Stimulation-Induced Release from Central Neurons.” Science 172.3982 (1971): 487-89. Print.

Official Home of the Free Hugs Campaign – Inspired by Juan Mann – Home. Web. 20 Nov. 2011. <http://www.freehugscampaign.org/&gt;.

Undrill, Guy. “What Remains Of Oedipus? Part Objects Beyond The Pleasure Principle.” British Journal of Psychotherapy 17.3 (2001): 372-81. Print.

Happiness is just around the corner

So, this last week hasn’t really lead to much in the way of project development. With two exams and a senior seminar paper due, I unfortunately completed a small amount of additional research.  However, I have been trying to focus on what types of things make people happy throughout the day.  Also, I watched a TED talk about happiness and what makes people happy.  The latest book that the UW Library system has on “The science of happiness” was printed in 1912…

Turn your frown upsidedown, UW-Madison!

Apart from the title of this post, my project is not going to be lame.  For my project, I want to discover a way that will brighten the day of the most people possible.  In my past four years at UW-Madison, I have seen that people are incredibly talented and competent when it comes to the subject they are studying, however, there are major obstacles that are blocking them from being productive.  Most of these obstacles that cause people to become distracted from their work lead to a bad mood.  When people develop a bad mood, a distraction forms and progress is unable to occur.  This usually leads to an endless cycle of worry and distraction.

To develop a way to make people happy, I went to the psychology department.  Because I am not a psychology major and my project isn’t for a psychology course, they weren’t entirely keen on helping me.  It seems that with the limited resources, they’d rather go for projects that are much better defined and are conducted by more experienced individuals.  They did, however, suggest a book called The Science of Happiness, by Stefan Klein.  I haven’t bought the book yet, but I feel as if it will be helpful in identifying things that I could do to make people happy.  Also, for the past few weeks, I have been trying to figure out what makes people feel better.  Unfortuantely, I have discovered that there isn’t a favorite thing for every single person.  I like looking at pictures of cats with witty quotes under the photo, but some people aren’t as inclined to enjoy that.  The search will continue.