Project Payphone

Overview

Objectives/Goals The objective is to determine if and why people answer ringing public payphones. I believe that people will only answer if they are attempting to use the phone and find it ringing. Methods/Materials Three payphone locations were selected after observing and testing nearly 20 different locations. Most payphone locations were eliminated because the phone either did not ring, there wasn#t enough foot traffic or the ring could not be heard by people passing by. A hidden video camera was mounted inside of a car parked nearby the payphone so that conversations and passersby could be recorded. A cell phone with a speakerphone was used to call the payphone from inside the car and record the conversation. The percentage of people picking up, reason for answering and age/sex of person answering was recorded. Results Several hundred people were observed passing by each of three different payphones on several different days. One payphone had a 10% pick-up rate for people that were passing by. The other two phones had less than a 2% pick-up rate. More men answered than women and the age of people answering was fairly well distributed. Although there were many different reasons for picking up the phone, the predominant reason (85% of the time) was that people were just curious to know who was on the other side of the phone. Conclusions/Discussion My overall conclusion is that people do in fact still answer ringing payphones, however, not very often. Even with the most popular payphones, the pick-up rate is less than 10%. When people do answer payphones, the most common reason (85%) is that they are just curious to see who is calling. This result does not support my hypothesis. In fact, only 2% of the people that answered did it because they wanted to use the phone (my hypothesis). This overall result suggests the notion that payphones are a dying breed. It appears that cell phones have taken their place to a large extent. Many people that still use payphones appear not to have a cell phone. And finally, many people that answer ringing payphones appear to be people that are just #hanging around# and not in a particular hurry.

Competition history

• CSEF 2005 Social Sciences (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1716

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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