Need help with Social Science research idea

As the topic said I need help picking a social science research idea. This is probably the easiest thing in the world.. but considering I have to present something to the class on something that isn't self-evident, it's tricky ish to think of something very creative?

*social science-- SOCIOLOGY anthropology, political science, economics, psychology, education

I want to do it on the "field" of video games or else something on the culture of brand names -- kind of stupid ish because it's just dealing with girls and how they act and how it's kind of ridiculous at times, but that's pretty bias. I'd like to do it about anime-cons, but MN doesn't have any and I don't think it's as good as Cali or whatever.

Anyways I want to do a video game research.. human behavior wise.. like interviewing "fanboys" about this and that. It sounds dumb, but most kids I know are doing something like "If I leave a dime here.. will someone pick it up? or what if I leave a quarter etc". I also was thinking about video game extremest too... but eh.. I don't want to do violence and video games or health related issue with video games that is just .. well long.

I'm going to have to research through surveys or interview or observing etc and then present a 10 minute presentation on my research, which I'll do a documentary film for (I hope).

Anyone with a better idea of this? Video games wouldn't necessarily be my topic.. I could do this in an Economic perspective of looking at game sales or something, but I need a focus.

Bottom line: What are some good ideas for a social science research?

-- IF there are questions and ideas in the thread during the night.. I'll probably answer in the morning

u should take someone very attractive and have them slip and fall and see how many people help them up, and then make them ugly and see if most likely people ignore the person

[quote name='Ikohn4ever']u should take someone very attractive and have them slip and fall and see how many people help them up, and then make them ugly and see if most likely people ignore the person[/quote]brilliant, I second this idea

[quote name='Ikohn4ever']u should take someone very attractive and have them slip and fall and see how many people help them up, and then make them ugly and see if most likely people ignore the person[/quote]

That is a really good idea. Also, what would be interesting is if you tested black vs. white falling and needing help up, and fat vs. skinny needing help up. I think all three of those categories would be intersting. And if you do that I'd love to know your results.

[quote name='1SwtDeception']*social science-- anthropology, political science, economics, psychology[/QUOTE]

The very fact that you neglected sociology makes me not want to offer any assistance.

I don't think that "tripping and falling" would be so easy to do as be believable. If you want to go that route, have people drop books/folders/files/etc. Don't just go for the "attractive/ugly" comparison (besides, I *dare* you to explain to your coparticipant that they are the "ugly" variable).

You would pick three spots on campus (or off, if you have the resources to truck people off there) and have your groups drop their books; male/female, black/white/other, or other comparison groups.

In the end, I don't think you'll see much assistance at all; typically, in cases like these (where people have very public accidents), help is sometimes less likely to occur because of the assumption on the part of all witnesses that someone else will help.

[quote name='mykevermin']The very fact that you neglected sociology makes me not want to offer any assistance.

I don't think that "tripping and falling" would be so easy to do as be believable. If you want to go that route, have people drop books/folders/files/etc. Don't just go for the "attractive/ugly" comparison (besides, I *dare* you to explain to your coparticipant that they are the "ugly" variable).

You would pick three spots on campus (or off, if you have the resources to truck people off there) and have your groups drop their books; male/female, black/white/other, or other comparison groups.

In the end, I don't think you'll see much assistance at all; typically, in cases like these (where people have very public accidents), help is sometimes less likely to occur because of the assumption on the part of all witnesses that someone else will help.[/QUOTE]

=[? SOCIOLOGY!

But yea I did forget that and the Education field. I don't remember it + I have an "time limit" of internet access at my house.

Ugly and attractive.. that won't be so fun at all. Although it's interesting.. it's seem too "self explanatory"-- society-wise.

Yea dropping books.. to me I know people won't pick it up.. most of them. I've seen lots of that happen at school and most of the time no one picks it up.

Makes me wonder.. if I drop a 360 game or a Nintendo game, who would pick it up, but even then it seems kind of dumb.

I liked that Yellow Fever video posing that question of "Why there are more White Males with Asian Females than Asian Males with White Females?" in a sense of it's true ;]. Kidding of course.

Since you wanna do games, you might try looking into the Unspoken Rules of Eqiuette at arcades, if you have any around. Like, when you put a token on the corner of the cabinet, it means someone's in line for that machine and when you die, you stop- right?

What if you don't stop?
What if you use that person's token to keep playing?
What if you 'cut' in front of someone's token?
What if you just wander by, pick up said token, and leave?

Or 2-player games. What would people do if you just walked up and started up as player 2 without asking?

You could probably get some weird reactions from people for 'breaking the rules'...

[quote name='DuelLadyS']Since you wanna do games, you might try looking into the Unspoken Rules of Eqiuette at arcades, if you have any around. Like, when you put a token on the corner of the cabinet, it means someone's in line for that machine and when you die, you stop- right?

What if you don't stop?
What if you use that person's token to keep playing?
What if you 'cut' in front of someone's token?
What if you just wander by, pick up said token, and leave?

Or 2-player games. What would people do if you just walked up and started up as player 2 without asking?

You could probably get some weird reactions from people for 'breaking the rules'...[/QUOTE]

haha I feel like I would get beat up so much for that. But you got a good point. I want to do that as.. "if a girl did that" or "if a guy did this" .. yea it brings into the account of genders and all, but to me it's funny knowing what some guys would do or some girls.

Hmm I'm tempted to do a DDR reaction.. looking at game extremist and see what people think if it's a girl or a guy or what not. I'm moreso leaning towards that, but hey whatever works. Everyones idea inspire to me in some way.

Thanks guys and lady ;] Keep the ideas coming if you can!

[quote name='1SwtDeception']=[? SOCIOLOGY!


I liked that Yellow Fever video posing that question of "Why there are more White Males with Asian Females than Asian Males with White Females?" in a sense of it's true ;]. Kidding of course.[/QUOTE]

you just have to bring them to get some 49 cent cheeseburgers at mcdonalds baby!

You could have kids playing 15 or 30 minutes of something like teenage mutant ninja turtles. After they're done, see if they're all riled up. Are they kicking and fighting each other? Now, compare that with a 30 minute block of cartoons. What are their reactions after that for the next 15 minutes? Try some other activities with them and judge their reactions. Is there a correlation between violent video games and tv vs. unruly behavior among children? Might be a good school project.

I did a survey on a main thoroughfare of my campus for a research project I was doing and I came up with a decent idea. See, to get people to take surveys here you have to bribe them with something, so I bought a buttload of those mini hershey bars and let people take "a couple." Everyone seemed to have a different idea of how many that was, so you could do a survey where you collect information about people (age, gender, major, maybe religion if you think your school would be cool about that) and see if you find any sort of correlation between how many pieces of candy they take and the things you're asking about (of course, you have to have some other bogus survey they're filling out in order to secretly get that info).