Food+Thieves

__Any location of social gathering at KIS:__ 1. Cafeteria: table, ID cards, food 2. Hallway 3. Classroom: packing up, readiness 4. School bus riding area 5. Bathroom
 * Briefly investigate a topic of interest that is of interest to the members of your group. Remember that this should be a simple topic since we have only a few days to complete everything.**

When people are asked whether they took one’s Sunchips while its owner was gone, will they lie?
 * Write a research question about your topic. This should be something that you don’t know the answer to right now, but would like to know within a few days.**

If a student A leaves his or her Sunchips on the cafeteria food table, then student A’s peers will most likely eat the Sunchips and lie about their actions. We think the people will lie because they think it’s not a big deal to take just a few chips. Moreover, they don’t want to look bad for taking food without permission. Also, if the peers are the chip owner’s friends, they will be inclined to take the chips because they think it’s fine to take a chip from a friend.
 * Write your hypothesis. What do you think you will find out and why do you think this? Again, I stress, KIS (keep it simple).**

__Naturalistic Observation:__ 1. Have person A sit at the cafeteria table with his or her Sunchips. 2. Person A eats his/her Sunchips and leaves his/her opened bag of Sunchips on the table. 3. While person A is gone, person B observes the table from a distance so that the people at the table will not notice the presence of person B. Person B will see if anyone eats the chips for a duration of four minutes. 4. Person B has to record the behaviors of person A’s peers. How many individuals were around person A’s chips? How many individuals took the chips? How did those who took the chips behave? If no one took the chips, were they completely indifferent? Or how did they behave? Person B also has to draw a detailed diagram of the table. 5. Person A comes back and asks the people at his/her table whether or not they took the chips. Person keeps count of how many people he/she asked. 6. Person A reports back to person B and the conductors of the experiment analyze their data.
 * Design a research study to find the answer to your question. Create a survey, naturalistic observation, an experiment or case study.**

FINAL VERSION: