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In October 2023, we conducted an interesting experiment. We showed 400+ participants pictures of four people (one older man, one younger man, one older woman and one younger woman). We asked participants to evaluate how they perceive these four people’s friendliness and trustworthiness and whether they are likely to acknowledge this person by giving eye contacts, smiles or nodding heads.
Using between group experiment design, we divided our participants into eight groups – four experiment groups, where people in the pictures each wear a Happy to Chat badge and four control groups, where people in the picture wear no badges. Every participant gets to see a randomly selected picture of either the older man, the younger man, the older woman or the younger woman.
After looking at the person in the picture, we asked participants to rate how they perceive this person’s friendliness and trustworthiness and how likely they are to acknowledge this person if seeing this person during their shopping trips.
First, tested on a five-point scale, where 1 equals very unfriendly and 5 equals very friendly, the findings show when seeing a person wearing the Happy to Chat badge, participants rate the person as friendlier (4.03) versus the same person without the badge (3.84). The difference between the experiment and the control group is statistically significant (p = 0.0006).
Second, tested on a five-point scale, where 1 equals very untrustworthy and 5 equals very trustworthy, the findings show when seeing a person wearing the Happy to Chat badge, participants rate the person as more trustworthy (3.54) versus the same person without the badge (3.43). The difference between the experiment and the control group is statistically significant (p = 0.003).
Finally, we asked participants to imagine themselves being at a shopping centre that is bright and safe and have a bit of time to spare after their shopping. In this condition, when they see the person in the picture, would they smile, make eye contacts and/or nod to this person?
Our finding shows participants are more likely to smile, make eye contacts and/or nod to this person wearing the Happy to Chat badge, than the person without the badge (3.84 versus 3.53). The question is tested based on five-point scale, where 1 equals very unlikely and 5 equals very likely and the effect is still statistically significant (p=0.013).
The take away of the experiment is – wearing a Happy to Chat badge can help you come across as friendlier, more trustworthy and you are more likely to be socially acknowledged by others when out and about!
