Pick Your No’s experiment takes looks out of equation

It takes a tenth of a second to form an impression of a stranger, and this impression is based solely on their appearance, according to the Association for Psychological Science.

Senior marketing major Mike Diaz said this is a big problem. That's why he started what he calls the "Pick Your No's" movement in an attempt to avoid the average person's tendencies to make snap and sometimes harsh, judgments.

Pick Your No's is an experiment in which students are asked if they would like to have a six-minute conversation with a complete stranger, the only catch being that they cannot see what the other person looks like until the end of the conversation. Since its inception in February, Diaz has had a total of 456 participants.

"It is an experience that allows two complete strangers to get to know each other in a new way, in a way that I feel like is rather rare," Diaz said. "It lets them enjoy a heightened sense of awareness without using an organ that would normally take up a portion of their attention. I tell people that their eyes will never know somebody as well as their ears."

After agreeing to participate in the Pick Your No's movement, participants have six minutes to ‘blindly' get to know each other. Their eyes are covered, they're brought to a complete stranger and are given a list of topics to go over if the conversation hits a lull.

Participants have not only learned something new about the way their judgment of someone's outside appearance may have skewed their view of the world, but also may walk away from the experience with a new friend, according to Diaz.

"I've always thought about if I were blind, how I would judge people differently, and so it was a really different experience," said Kayley Marvin, a sophomore environmental studies major who participated in the Pick Your No's movement. "I really liked it. I ended up making two really good friends off of it."

Senior political science major Corey Hubbard said that her experience with Pick Your No's was a very basic, human exchange. However, with the absence of sight, she found the entire thing to be a very enjoyable, interesting experience free from awkward moments. She recommends it to anyone willing to take part in the movement.

After participating in Pick Your No's, junior pre-clinical allied health major Paige Castleberry made a few suggestions to Diaz on how to avoid participants only learning the other person's name and major. From there, Castleberry decided to volunteer her time, helping Diaz get as many participants as possible.

"If you have the time and aren't doing anything else, why not just go ahead and say yes? Go ahead and do something, because you really don't know at the end of the day," Castleberry said. "You could have a completely average person, someone you don't really get along with, but you could get someone really profound and have an awesome conversation and actually make a friendship out of it. It really is like picking your no's and just kind of being open to things."

Not all participants in the Pick Your No's movement end up finding a new best friend. Diaz recalled a pairing who, in the allotted six minutes, began to really click. They were from the same hometown, knew the same people and were laughing nearly 80 percent of the conversation. Then, at the end of their conversation, the blindfolds came off, and the two parted ways almost immediately.

"And that just blew me away, I was in shock," Diaz said. "And at that moment, I realized that this was not only one of the most tragic instances that have happened throughout this thing, but also the most powerful; because it shows you how much we are dictated by our organs, by aspects that play no role in the interactions we have with people."

Despite occasional disappointment, Diaz said that Pick Your No's has brought him closer to some of the most profound people he has ever met, people who are the epitome of an open mind.

Diaz also said that those who have helped him in his endeavor continue to be a growing group of wonderfully authentic individuals.

"It's fun, exciting, you might meet your new best friend, and you might learn a thing or two about somebody else, or yourself," Diaz said. "It's unlike anything you've ever experienced before, it's got constant mystery, it's always going to blow you away, it's always going to exceed your expectations because you're going to get a different person every single time."