U2 Research Project Results

[ruffian]

Thanks to everyone who participated in the research project my colleague and I conducted during the Philadelphia and Atlanta shows during 2005 regarding fan's perceptions and attitudes about the GA experience.

In case you have forgotten, we distributed surveys to almost 300 of you asking you about your demographic information, concert experiences, self-designated "fan status" (on a continuum from hardcore to casual fan), position in the line that day, and your attitudes about fairness (how long people should be able to leave the line and for what purposes, whether you can hold a spot for a friend). We provided some hypothetical scenarios to explore your reactions to line intrusion, or cutting in line.

We have (finally) finished analyzing and writing up the data for our first paper. We focused rather narrowly on the topic of line intrusion for the first project, and the paper is a rather technical analysis of the experimental data.

In a nutshell, we found that U2 fans are different than any other "queuing" population that has been studied by social scientists, in that they have a heightened degree of moral outrage about line cutting--and the more dedicated the fan, the more moral outrage they experience. U2 fans are also upset about cutting in line that occurs behind them. This is an unexpected result and has not been found in other literature. We explore some of the reasons this might occur.

We are working on second paper for the spring that will explore the GA experience more broadly: how norms of behavior emerge and are transmitted to members of the GA line, the role of online communities, and how fans devise concepts of fairness.

The research for our first project will be presented at the American Psychological Association meetings in San Francisco (pending acceptance--it has been submitted) in 2007, and will be submitted for review/publication in a social psychology journal at the beginning of the year.

For those who participated and asked to be notified of the results via email, we are in the process of doing that so you will receive something in the next day (as an MS Word attachment)

If you were not in the study but would like the results or were in the study but neglected to provide your email address, email us at U2Research@gmail.com and we'll send you a document outlining the experiments and the conclusions. Be warned, we made sure the article is tedious--in true academic fashion We are also interested in interviewing fans for our second paper, which will include some narrative data. If you are interested, email us. Likewise, if you ever helped organize or "ran" a GA line we would be especially interested in hearing your thoughts. Everything is completely confidential and we'd be sure to brief you on all that. Email if you'd like to participate next time around.

Thanks for your patience if you've been waiting to hear about these results.

 

[Chizip]

sounds interesting, if you need someone to interview for the next round, you know where to find me, keep up the good work!

 

[4U2Play]

Glad to see my tax money being put to good use.

Will the results of your project be published in Psychology Today or perhaps the New England Journal of Medicine? I hope that dude with all the U2 tatoos gets a few mentions.

 

[ruffian]

Glad to see my tax money being put to good use.

Will the results of your project be published in Psychology Today or perhaps the New England Journal of Medicine? I hope that dude with all the U2 tatoos gets a few mentions.

This project wasn't funded by your tax money. Both of our universities are private and they paid for the photocopies of the surveys. We covered our own travel expenses, etc.

The research will be submitted to the Journal of Applied Social Psychology and will be presented at the American Psychological Association Meetings in August, 2007. Psychology today is a rather "popular" forum that we don't think appropriate for this research, and the New England Journal of Medicine isn't quite appropriate...given that our research has no medical implications.

 

[*Ally*]

cool!! i remember participating in that survey in the philly GA line... looking forward to seeing what other insight you can glean from us U2 freaks!!

 

[ruffian]

cool!! i remember participating in that survey in the philly GA line... looking forward to seeing what other insight you can glean from us U2 freaks!!

and we're freaks with heightened senses of moral outrage, too!

 

[daygloeyes2]

Glad to see my tax money being put to good use.

Will the results of your project be published in Psychology Today or perhaps the New England Journal of Medicine? I hope that dude with all the U2 tatoos gets a few mentions.

 

[ramblin rose]

Glad to see my tax money being put to good use.

Will the results of your project be published in Psychology Today or perhaps the New England Journal of Medicine? I hope that dude with all the U2 tatoos gets a few mentions.

Did I miss something?

 

[u2wedge]

In a nutshell, we found that U2 fans are different than any other "queuing" population that has been studied by social scientists, in that they have a heightened degree of moral outrage about line cutting--and the more dedicated the fan, the more moral outrage they experience.

not really surprising... and this seems to go along the lines of normal human behavior.

I think a more interesting topic would be the reasons behind lining up days in advance, the reasons behind specific rules that are created for GA lines in different situations, etc. vs. line cutting. And if you're going to use line cutting as the topic, shouldn't you interview those who are line cutters just to round out the paper? I'd be interested to hear their reasons and I'm assuming that they might be just as 'die hard' as those who wait in line, but approach the GA line with a different attitude.

I mean, is there any fan group that *endorses* line cutting?

I'm not dissing your paper, it's just that I think 'discovering' that fans get upset when people cut in line isn't really ground breaking research, imho.

 

[ruffian]

Re: Re: U2 Research Project Results

not really surprising... and this seems to go along the lines of normal human behavior.

I think a more interesting topic would be the reasons behind lining up days in advance, the reasons behind specific rules that are created for GA lines in different situations, etc. vs. line cutting. And if you're going to use line cutting as the topic, shouldn't you interview those who are line cutters just to round out the paper? I'd be interested to hear their reasons and I'm assuming that they might be just as 'die hard' as those who wait in line, but approach the GA line with a different attitude.

I mean, is there any fan group that *endorses* line cutting?

I'm not dissing your paper, it's just that I think 'discovering' that fans get upset when people cut in line isn't really ground breaking research, imho.

Oh, I welcome any kinds of questions or discussion...especially given that your tone isn't mocking and rude, and that you make some interesting points.

The work is not groundbreaking in that people get upset about line-cutting. The results are simply unusual because in every other empirical study done about line intrusion, no one gives a crap if someone intrudes into the line behind them. So why is it that, in this sample of people, they care about what is going on behind them? Socially speaking, it's interesting and it's actually not normal human behavior.

I would argue (as we will in the second paper) that U2 fans in the GA tend to get upset about what goes on behind them because
1) chaos anywhere in the line can threaten their own security in the line, so it is ultimately old-fashioned self-interest, and

2) an unsually long queue lends itself to building social relationships. you speak to people in line behind you if you are going to leave for food or showers, people share food, stories about their favorite shows...so it is more a social system than other queues that have been studied.

In the second paper we are looking at how norms develop (so how people come up with rules for the GA, and how those rules are shared with others--and why people for the most part tend to follow them) and how people figure out what is "fair" in a given situation. We sort of know why people line up days in advance...to get a good spot on the floor. But the "secondary gains" are that they will visit with friends they have met on the tour and will participate in a shared experience that can sometimes be positive.

It would be fascinating to interview line cutters but I think they run too fast to fill out a survey

Feel free to PM if you want a copy of all the questions we explored on the survey, and thanks for your ideas.

 

[STING2]

Re: Re: Re: U2 Research Project Results

Oh, I welcome any kinds of questions or discussion...especially given that your tone isn't mocking and rude, and that you make some interesting points.

The work is not groundbreaking in that people get upset about line-cutting. The results are simply unusual because in every other empirical study done about line intrusion, no one gives a crap if someone intrudes into the line behind them. So why is it that, in this sample of people, they care about what is going on behind them? Socially speaking, it's interesting and it's actually not normal human behavior.

I would argue (as we will in the second paper) that U2 fans in the GA tend to get upset about what goes on behind them because
1) chaos anywhere in the line can threaten their own security in the line, so it is ultimately old-fashioned self-interest, and

2) an unsually long queue lends itself to building social relationships. you speak to people in line behind you if you are going to leave for food or showers, people share food, stories about their favorite shows...so it is more a social system than other queues that have been studied.

In the second paper we are looking at how norms develop (so how people come up with rules for the GA, and how those rules are shared with others--and why people for the most part tend to follow them) and how people figure out what is "fair" in a given situation. We sort of know why people line up days in advance...to get a good spot on the floor. But the "secondary gains" are that they will visit with friends they have met on the tour and will participate in a shared experience that can sometimes be positive.

It would be fascinating to interview line cutters but I think they run too fast to fill out a survey

Feel free to PM if you want a copy of all the questions we explored on the survey, and thanks for your ideas.

As far as the demographic information, did you find out anything like the average age of the 300 people interviewed?

 

[ruffian]

Re: Re: Re: Re: U2 Research Project Results

As far as the demographic information, did you find out anything like the average age of the 300 people interviewed?

From Philadelphia:

Participants
Participants were 283 adults (45% men) waiting in the GA line at two U2 concerts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in October 2005. The average age was 30 (SD 7.8, range 18-67). Participants were mostly white (90% white, 2% Asian/Asian-American, 2% Black/African-American, 3% Latino/Hispanic, and 3% other ethnicities) and educated (1% some high school, 8% completed high school, 23% some college, 49% completed college, and 19% advanced degrees). Participants reported being U2 fans for an average of 7 years (SD 7.2, range 0-26 years), having attended an average of 7 prior U2 concerts (SD 8.8, range 0-75) of which an average of 3 concerts entailed waiting in the GA line (SD 4.0, range 0-24). Fourteen percent said they were casual fans, 23% enthusiastic fans, 41% seriously dedicated fans, and 22% hardcore fans. On these two concert days the first fans in the GA line arrived at 9:30 PM and 10:30 PM the night before the concert the following evening.
Procedure

From Atlanta :

Participants
Participants were 206 U2 fans (54% men) waiting in the GA line at two U2 concerts in Atlanta, Georgia in November 2005. The average age was 30 (SD 7.3, range 18-57). Participants were mostly white (90% white, 2% Asian/Asian-American, 6% Latino/Hispanic, and 2% other ethnicities) and educated (6% completed high school, 20% some college, 49% completed college and 25% advanced degrees). Participants reported being U2 fans for an average of 14 years (SD 6.4, range 0-30), having attended an average of 6 prior U2 concerts (SD 7.9, range 0-50), of which an average of 3 concerts entailed waiting in the GA line (SD 5.4, range 0-36). Nine percent said they were casual fans, 26% enthusiastic fans, 51% seriously dedicated fans, and 12% hardcore fans.

the number here is over 300 because we had to throw out incomplete surveys or those completed by individuals under 18.

 

[nurse chrissi]

Good work!

It is slightly disturbing that even with the majority of those surveyed having a college degree or higher they still spent the night on the streets, sad really

I'm thinking that I'll use the next tour/GA line to work on my masters thesis for school entitled "The spread of community acquired illness in general admission"

 

[U2Man]

 

[kellyahern]

What were the other queuing populations that U2 fans were compared to? I'm curious as to what subjects the previous studies researched (ex. people lining up at theme parks, other concerts besides U2, shoppers on the day after Thanksgiving, etc. ).

 

[kellyahern]

:

I'm thinking that I'll use the next tour/GA line to work on my masters thesis for school entitled "The spread of community acquired illness in general admission"

Subtitle:
"The importance of vitamins, wet wipes, and hand sanitizers."

 

[BonoIsMyMuse]

Be warned, we made sure the article is tedious--in true academic fashion

tedious academic language and U2: two of my favorite things Bono has gotten a mention in my dissertation

 

[4U2Play]

Sorry, ruffian, didn't mean for my post to sound snide or cynical, I was actually trying to compliment your study, I guess it comes across differently than I intended... my bad!

Please let us know when and where the study will be published, I'd love to read it. I always thought someone should do a study of the psychology of U2 GA lines, so much melodrama and pathos, not to mention psychosis and paranoia (def. "baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others").

I'm curious to know why some U2 fans express moral outrage about cutting in line that occurs behind them. The sense of "fairness" exhibited by some of us is quite interesting (note my rant elsewhere about the "fairness" of allowing hundreds of "VIPs" into the Honolulu ellipse at the expense of U2 fans that lined up outside for half a day).

 

[STING2]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: U2 Research Project Results

From Philadelphia:

Participants
Participants were 283 adults (45% men) waiting in the GA line at two U2 concerts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in October 2005. The average age was 30 (SD 7.8, range 18-67). Participants were mostly white (90% white, 2% Asian/Asian-American, 2% Black/African-American, 3% Latino/Hispanic, and 3% other ethnicities) and educated (1% some high school, 8% completed high school, 23% some college, 49% completed college, and 19% advanced degrees). Participants reported being U2 fans for an average of 7 years (SD 7.2, range 0-26 years), having attended an average of 7 prior U2 concerts (SD 8.8, range 0-75) of which an average of 3 concerts entailed waiting in the GA line (SD 4.0, range 0-24). Fourteen percent said they were casual fans, 23% enthusiastic fans, 41% seriously dedicated fans, and 22% hardcore fans. On these two concert days the first fans in the GA line arrived at 9:30 PM and 10:30 PM the night before the concert the following evening.
Procedure

From Atlanta :

Participants
Participants were 206 U2 fans (54% men) waiting in the GA line at two U2 concerts in Atlanta, Georgia in November 2005. The average age was 30 (SD 7.3, range 18-57). Participants were mostly white (90% white, 2% Asian/Asian-American, 6% Latino/Hispanic, and 2% other ethnicities) and educated (6% completed high school, 20% some college, 49% completed college and 25% advanced degrees). Participants reported being U2 fans for an average of 14 years (SD 6.4, range 0-30), having attended an average of 6 prior U2 concerts (SD 7.9, range 0-50), of which an average of 3 concerts entailed waiting in the GA line (SD 5.4, range 0-36). Nine percent said they were casual fans, 26% enthusiastic fans, 51% seriously dedicated fans, and 12% hardcore fans.

the number here is over 300 because we had to throw out incomplete surveys or those completed by individuals under 18.

That is really interesting information. I had always estimated(not in any real scientific way) that the average age of a U2 fan was 35 at the time, based on the theory that the band had simply won back their old fan base in this decade after losing much of it on Zooropa and POP, instead of adding younger fans. Essentially, still a huge fan base, but the same fan base from 1987-1993, but just older. This suggest though that U2 has indeed attracted many new younger fans, although I'd say it seems to be weighted more towards the 87-93 crowd.

In terms of the average length that people had been fans, there was a wide difference between the results in Philly and Atlanta with it being 7 years for Philly(suprisingly low) and 14 years for Atlanta, which seems about right and places the average person in line at the Atlanta shows as having been a fan since the 1987-1993 period.

Interesting to see that on average 70% to 75% had a college degree, when the national average is just under 30%.

One question I have is whether these results would hold up if the interview had been expanded to other people who did not have General Admission tickets?

Also, did you collect any information on where people lived roughly, or how far they had to drive to the show?

Thanks for the information!

 

[ruffian]

Good work!

It is slightly disturbing that even with the majority of those surveyed having a college degree or higher they still spent the night on the streets, sad really

I'm thinking that I'll use the next tour/GA line to work on my masters thesis for school entitled "The spread of community acquired illness in general admission"

oh man, it's a public health study WAITING to happen. the port-o-potties alone...

Subtitle:
"The importance of vitamins, wet wipes, and hand sanitizers."

The GA kit of champions! next tour I'm using some of those "elderly wipes" you mentioned.

 

[maycocksean]

Very Interesting! Will you post more of your research on this topic here as well?

 

[ruffian]

Re: Re: U2 Research Project Results

tedious academic language and U2: two of my favorite things Bono has gotten a mention in my dissertation

i remember you from the GA


academic nerds unite!

 

[ruffian]

I always thought someone should do a study of the psychology of U2 GA lines, so much melodrama and pathos, not to mention psychosis and paranoia (def. "baseless or excessive suspicion of the motives of others").

that would be quite the undertaking given the degree of psychopathology that arises from lack of sleep, a steady diet of junk food and gatorade, and heat/cold/sleet/wind pelting debris. i developed a full blown personality disorder by Portland

I'm curious to know why some U2 fans express moral outrage about cutting in line that occurs behind them. The sense of "fairness" exhibited by some of us is quite interesting (note my rant elsewhere about the "fairness" of allowing hundreds of "VIPs" into the Honolulu ellipse at the expense of U2 fans that lined up outside for half a day).

Well, this really is the central question of our study. We think it's two things--what might seem like "moral outrage" on the face of things could actually be self-interest. If people start cutting behind you and you don't object, maybe they will cut in front of you and hurt your chances of getting rail/ellipse, etc. Secondly, we think that social relationships develop in GA lines (and mutual assistance like food sharing or holding the people's spot ahead of you while they put stuff in their car) and people feel some responsibility to protect people in line behind them.

In the second study, we tend to dismantle (haha) the idea of fairness to see how people construct that concept.

 

[ruffian]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: U2 Research Project Results

One question I have is whether these results would hold up if the interview had been expanded to other people who did not have General Admission tickets?

We could do the interview with people in seats IF they have previously experienced the GA. In the survey (which I can send you if you want) we ask people to respond to some hypothetical scenarios where they have to imagine line cutting occuring ahead of them or behind them (depending on which scenario people received--those were randomized). So the person doing the survey would need to have had some firsthand experience of that.

Also, did you collect any information on where people lived roughly, or how far they had to drive to the show?

Thanks for the information!

We did collect that information and will include it in the second study. When the new term of the academic year starts some poor unsuspecting undergraduate will be entering that data. It's useful to know because it will help us understand time and money investment of fans. Are fans that travel a long way for the show and take off work more likely to get upset about line cutting? I think so, but we'll see.

 

[ruffian]

What were the other queuing populations that U2 fans were compared to? I'm curious as to what subjects the previous studies researched (ex. people lining up at theme parks, other concerts besides U2, shoppers on the day after Thanksgiving, etc. ).

the most similar study done was among queuers in Australia waiting for football tickets to go on sale. That queue was around six days long In many respects it was similar to the U2 queue, in that people could get "time-outs" for food and such but there was a general understanding that you had to be in line. People socialized, played music, made friends, probably had huge fights--much like the U2 GA

Other studies have been done at (no surprise) Disney, people waiting in line for tickets to an art exhibit (a very long queue), people at banks, and people waiting for customer service. This project was interesting because there just aren't that many lines that you can study as "social systems." And these lines tend to have pretty much the same informal rules in city after city--always someone with a list and a Sharpie, for instance.

A couple weeks ago my secretary came into the office and had a number on her hand, written with a sharpie. A closet GA concert-goer???

No, she'd been at Best Buy trying to buy an Xbox for her son and they all decided to number themselves.

 

[ruffian]

Very Interesting! Will you post more of your research on this topic here as well?

We'll send a link of the published work to anyone who wants it, and we might ask for participants to interview for the next study.

i'm expecting a PM from a mod at any moment. "Would you please take a look at the FAQs about the inappropriateness of boring the entire U2 fan base with academic drivel? thanks!"

 

[martha]

Re: Re: Re: U2 Research Project Results

no one gives a crap

Now, I may be wrong, but this phrase sure doesn't sound like academic language.



















Gettin' all nerdy about U2

 

[Catlady]

Subtitle:
"The importance of vitamins, wet wipes, and hand sanitizers."

*catlady online at 1:15 am unable to rest due to massive bronchitis courtesy of the GA line/entire Hawaii experience*

This is extremely interesting. I was at the front of the line for the 9/21 nightmare in Chicago, and I can definitely attest to the outrage of knowing people are cutting behind you. People kept asking me why I cared if they were cutting at #50 since I had a much lower number and they were no threat to me. Duh??!!! #50 was likely in line just as long as I was and it's unfair!!

P.S. two of those 9/21 linecutters were DIRECTLY behind me in line in Hawaii and admitted to what they did (before learning that I had been there too).

 

[Chizip]

the 9/21 fiasco was great

i cant believe how ridiculous some people can be

 

[Liesje]

This is extremely interesting. I was at the front of the line for the 9/21 nightmare in Chicago, and I can definitely attest to the outrage of knowing people are cutting behind you. People kept asking me why I cared if they were cutting at #50 since I had a much lower number and they were no threat to me. Duh??!!! #50 was likely in line just as long as I was and it's unfair!!

They they were cutting behind you, in front of me! Wasn't that the day the group of South African guys showed up at 4:30 and demanded we let them in the first 100 just because they came from South Africa? That was the first time I've gotten into a real confrontation with someone. I said "I'm sorry dudes, but I gotta believe that South Africans understand the concept of a queue. If it meant that much to you, you would've been here two days ago." The real problem was, they did have numbers on their hands just below ours, but no one had seen them for the past 20 hours! Them and then all the usual yuppy kids with their sense of teenage entitlement.