18 Lines The Purpose Of This Assignment Is To

Lines

The purpose of this assignment is to help you learn more about the very first stages of getting to know someone. No, we won’t send you out to the singles bars to meet someone… but you will gather data on how those things happen in the real world. As a result of the exercise (and online discussion) you will learn more about what scientists have discovered about the process and compare your results to theirs.

The exercise has to do with our society’s expectation that men approach women and sometimes use a pickup “line” to attract their interest and strike up a conversation. So the exercise starts with that expectation. If you wish, you may do the reverse, and ask women about their approaches to men. Or ask some gay, bi, or trans friends. The research we will be comparing your results to, however, relates to heterosexual men delivering lines to women.

Download this report form

… to your computer, then print it out — OR use it as the answer sheet you use to type the responses of your interviewees. If you use this text file and type everything into it, you can just copy and paste the results into the window when it’s time to submit the assignment.

1. Talk to 3 men (friends, classmates, relatives… whomever) and ask them each to give you 3 “lines” they used when trying meet someone they were romantically and/or sexually interested in. These could be sweet or crude — or anything in between. Write down those “lines” in the appropriate column of the chart. Then ask them whether the target of the “line” responded positively or negatively. In the “Notes” column, write down anything else interesting about the interaction (for example, if the participants were both gay men). Of course, do not write down any information which would personally identify anyone or violate their confidentiality.
2. Talk to 3 women and ask them each to give you 3 “lines” that other people used to try to pick them up, or just to strike up a romantic/sexual conversation. Then ask them whether the “lines” worked on them: did a conversation actually begin and did the woman have a favorable response to the line? If you feel comfortable doing so, ask them how far the fellow “got” with them (erotically or relationship-wise). Just as with part 1, write down any interesting comments in the Notes column and don’t violate anyone’s confidentiality.
3. Write one sentence about what, if anything, makes the difference between a successful line and an unsuccessful one.

18 points: 1 point for each of 18 “lines”
2 points: 1 sentence about success/failure

Rubric

Lines HW rubric (1)