QUASI-EXPERIMENT ON GRAPEVINE

It is normal for people to share their thoughts, ideas, opinions, and even secrets to others. By sharing a portion of yourself to others, somehow, connects you to them and creates a sense of belongingness to the group or to someone. It builds trust especially when you obtain a favorable feedback from the person you talked to. Unfortunately, not all people are interested in your life and not all people can be trusted. Some are curious about the things that you share and they don’t upkeep with the consequences of their actions such as passing a message that was intended for them to keep. The communicated message passed down from person to person that were often distorted is known as grapevine.

There are different patterns of grapevine but I will no longer discuss this on my blog. But the pattern of my grapevine based on what I received was single-stranded wherein one person passed it onto another person until the message was received by other people.

Image Source

THE STORY

There were two groups in this quasi-experiment. Group A are students of mine whom I trusted since I have been with them for more than a year and Group B are my current students where I only interact every once a week.

GROUPS:

A – Seniors whom I trusted since I have been with them for more than a year

B – Juniors where I only interact every once a week

The story was assigned differently to two groups. Both stories were true in a sense that I plan to resign in my current school this coming 2017. The stories were somehow different since Group A received a message where I emphasized that I didn’t accept the advisees in research for Juniors since I will transfer to a different school because of the organizational culture, pay, etc. while Group B received a message wherein I declined to become their adviser since I might resign this 2017 to pursue my Ph.D. and to have my clinical practice.

Surprisingly, within a week I received the message coming from the dean asking me if the rumors were true. She stated that the message came from one of my colleagues who received the message to one of my students (where the identity of the student was hidden). Apparently, based on the structure of the message that I created. I know where it came from and specifically the person who spread the gossip. I don't have any problem if that person spread it since I am prepared about the consequences of what I did. I just hope this person learn to handle some issues in strict confidence about things especially if someone entrusted a concern.

MY THOUGHTS

I am disappointed to know that the outcome of my small quasi-experiment validated the findings that gossip often emanated from someone close to you. The result of this mini quasi-experiment only proved that you cannot trust people even those whom you believe are loyal to you. You have to choose wisely those people you interact with.

Sometimes, it is fine to use white lies to temporarily cover up your plans so that others don’t have any idea about you if you wish to keep it a secret. In my case, I am planning to be vocal about this after the results since I am not used to telling a lie when someone asks me something about me.

In the future, it is better to keep a distance from people and be mindful of drawing the line.