Multimodal Interactions Between Solicitors and Students on Bruinwalk

Introduction

If you want to get anywhere at UCLA, you’ll probably have to walk through Bruin Walk. As one of the central arteries to get to class, you will usually find a constant flow of people on Bruin Walk making it a prime location to get people’s attention and distribute information. Every weekday, student organizations, religious groups, and other groups not affiliated with UCLA set up camp on Bruin Walk. They sell food to raise money, hand out fliers to persuade people to join their club, or encourage students to support their cause. When you walk down Bruin Walk, you will certainly be bombarded by people trying to hand you fliers, see at least one club selling Porto’s pastries, or be approached by students from CalPirg asking for donations. Consequently, Bruin Walk is a site of frequent, multimodal communication between students and solicitors. Walking down Bruin Walk is a shared cultural experience of the UCLA Community, and the legacy of the phenomenon is memorialized through internet memes, skits at Spring Sing, and by tour guides explaining to potential future Bruins. While some students love checking out clubs and seeing what food is for sale, others dread the concentrated, intense intervals of social interaction it entails. As students navigate solicitors from all directions who are trying to persuade them to accept their flier or buy a pastry, they must utilize different communicative strategies when indexing their acceptance or rejection of solicitors. What are these linguistic strategies, and why do students choose them? Which ones are most frequent? Do students consider norms of politeness when interacting with solicitors? In order to answer these questions, we studied how students display rejection, support, or avoidance towards solicitors and how politeness operates in the context of Bruin Walk.

Background

Language is multimodal, meaning it encompasses more than just verbal communication and operates on “multiple levels and through multiple channels” (Jakobson, 1960, as cited in Ahearn, 2021, p. 35). Other modes of communication include “nonverbal gestures, gazes, facial expressions, body movements, written texts, computers, material objects, or other semiotic forms” (Ahearn, 2021, p. 35). Of particular interest for our research is nonverbal communication and body language as modes of meaning-making for students on Bruin Walk.

Politeness theory is a framework proposed by Brown and Levinson that seeks to understand how people use language to navigate social interaction and relationships, rooted in the concept of “face” (Brown and Levinson, 1987). Brown and Levinson describe “face” as the “public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself” (Brown and Levinson, 1987, p. 311). To make it simpler, think about the phrase “losing face”. This phrase means to be embarrassed or humiliated. Thus, people try to maintain their face in order to claim their self-image and be accepted by others. Brown and Levinson’s concept of face consists of “positive face”, which describes the desire to be approved, liked, and valued, and “negative face” which describes the desire for autonomy and freedom from imposition (Brown and Levinson, 1987, p. 311). People must cooperate with others to maintain their face, and will defend their face should it be threatened (Brown and Levinson, 1987, p. 311). Positive and negative face-threatening acts (FTAs) are those that could damage one’s self-esteem or autonomy, respectively  (Brown and Levinson, 1987, p. 313). For example, someone telling you to do something would be a negative FTA because it imposes on your autonomy. An example of a positive FTA would be declining an invitation to a party because it would. Politeness strategies are ways to mitigate FTAs (Brown and Levinson, 1987, p. 315). For example, to mitigate a negative FTA, someone could use apologetic language before asking someone to do something (I’m sorry, excuse me, etc.). Polite strategies can also be described as “face-saving acts”.

On Bruin Walk, solicitors and students must navigate dynamics of politeness with regards to positive and negative FTAs and strategies. For example, when a solicitor approaches a student, they commit a positive FTA because they risk being rejected by students. At the same time, they commit a negative FTA because they are imposing on the autonomy of students. Students navigate decisions of whether to “save the face” of solicitors or protect their own autonomy.

The target community of our research is UCLA students on Bruin Walk, including students who are walking on campus, who we call students, and those who are soliciting on Bruin Walk, who we call solicitors. The language used in this community is English, unless a specific cultural club that speaks a different language and targets members of their culture is soliciting on Bruin Walk. Solicitors set up “booths” at the tables that line either side of Bruin Walk, where solicitors might hang colorful posters and signs that visually communicate their cause. Solicitors stand in front of their tables and make statements towards students walking by encouraging them to buy something or join their club. Many clubs hand out fliers to students as well. Consequently, students passing by must respond to the high volume of solicitors trying to communicate with them as they walk by.

Methods

In order to investigate our research questions, we used participant observation, surveys, and interviews. We observed interactions on Bruin Walk during times when students would be walking to class, as these are times when most solicitors are distributing flyers. We took notes on interactions and attempted to tally students based on the types of communication they exhibited (e.g. looking away or saying “no thank you”). However, this proved difficult as hundreds of students could walk by in a period of 10 minutes during peak hours, so it was hard to tally every interaction. On one occasion of doing our fieldwork, we focused on a single solicitor (a man representing a religious group) and tallied student responses to the solicitor over a 20-minute period during a less busy time. We primarily used this data in order to draw conclusions about how students communicate on Bruin Walk.

In addition to observations, we collected seven survey responses to questions about student’s experiences on Bruin Walk. We asked about what forms of communication students use, and why they avoid or engage in interaction. We also conducted two in-depth interviews with two people to further gain insight.

Results

After observing and tallying the ways students interacted with the single solicitor from the religious group, we found that people overwhelmingly used non-verbal signals such as shaking their heads, looking down, or completely ignoring solicitors as a way to express their rejection. Only 13% of interactions with this particular solicitor, positive or negative, involved verbal communication. Furthermore, 46% of students completely ignored the solicitor.

Through the use of surveys, we found that students had various reasons for not interacting with solicitors on Bruin Walk, often relating to time constraints and social awkwardness (See Appendix for more in-depth interviews).

Discussion

When looking at the dynamics of politeness on Bruin Walk, we found that students and solicitors use and interpret negative and positive politeness strategies in ways that differ from normal politeness interactions. The frequent use of non-verbal communication by students contrasts the mostly verbal communication (along with non-verbal such as body movement, colorful signs, etc.) that solicitors use. Furthermore, it is intertwined with dynamics of politeness.  Solicitors are almost always the initiators of interaction, committing a positive face threatening act when they risk being accepted or rejected by students, and a negative face-threatening act when they impose on the autonomy of students. Students assert autonomy and protect their negative face by using non-verbal communication to signify avoidance, and rarely make the effort to save the positive face of solicitors. Students feel that it is acceptable to completely ignore solicitors. While normally completely ignoring someone who risks their positive would be considered rude, it is socially acceptable on Bruin Walk. One solicitor we interviewed said that they didn’t think it was rude to ignore solicitors, because he empathized with the desire to be left alone (See Interview 3). However, he did think it was nice when people acknowledged him. Furthermore, solicitors adapt their politeness strategies based on the student’s behavior, demonstrating the specified nature of how some solicitors engage with students depending on the situation. This demonstrates how people engage in altered acts of politeness due to the unique communicative environment of Bruin Walk.

This research helps people understand that navigating politeness strategies is complex and that norms of politeness differ greatly in different settings even when situated within the same larger cultural context. For further study, it would be interesting to investigate the role of gender and ethnicity on Bruin Walk interactions.

References

Ahearn, L. M. (2021). Gesture, Sign Languages, and Multimodality. In Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology, Third Edition (pp. 35–53). John Wiley & Sons.

Brown, P., & Levinson, S.C. (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Appendix A: Interviews

Interview 1: 2^nd Year Commuter Student

1. How many times per day do you walk down Bruin Walk? Are you usually walking or with friends?
   I am usually by myself. I walk there about once or twice a day, since I commute and I usually pass by there when I go to Ackerman.
2. Do you usually interact with solicitors down Bruin Walk? If so, what usually calls your attention?
   I don’t like to. I am a very awkward person.
3. Do you like when solicitors interact with you down Bruin Walk?
   No.
4. Why don’t you like interacting with solicitors down Bruin Walk?
   Because I am in a hurry to go to class, usually I am always running late.
5. How do you think solicitors are most effective at getting your attention? What signals do they use?
   When there are a lot of people, I like to see what’s up because they might be selling something I’d be interested in.
6. Are there certain strategies that you think are rude?
   I think it’s rude when they see me wearing my headphones and try to talk to me.
7. Do you feel bad when you ignore a solicitor?
   YES! But I’m just trying to get to class.
8. What do you think about the environment of Bruin Walk makes it so notorious for lots of interactions with solicitors?
   Since it’s always so busy with many students, every club provides different opportunities for students to interact with things of their liking. I really like that Bruin Walk exists for people who want to be more involved. But I personally would like to be more involved, it’s just the fact that I am a commuter that I do not have time to even join any clubs or be involved.

Interview 2: 2^nd Year Student, Lives off-campus

1. How many times per day do you walk down Bruin Walk? Are you usually walking or with friends?
   Maybe like 2-3 a day. I just walk alone.
2. Do you usually interact with solicitors down Bruin Walk? If so, what usually calls your attention?
   I hate interacting with solicitors down Bruin Walk! I just hate it. Like I am just trying to get to class, and they are always waving their fliers, and waving their hands to get my attention. I even try to avoid walking down Bruin Walk, it’s the same thing every single time.
3. Do you like when solicitors interact with you down Bruin Walk?
   No. Not at all.
4. Why don’t you like interacting with solicitors down Bruin Walk?
   I am so awkward and I hate interacting with people I do not know. Especially people down Bruin Walk are annoying. I’m sorry.
5. How do you think solicitors are most effective at getting your attention? What signals do they use?
   Honestly, I get why they do it. Some of them are just trying to make their money and that’s good. But they should know who and not to approach, especially when I have my head facing down to avoid them.
6. Are there certain strategies that you think are rude?
   I just don’t like when they interact with me while they see me with my head down and my big headphones.
7. Do you feel bad when you ignore a solicitor?
   Not really.
8. What do you think about the environment of Bruin Walk makes it so notorious for lots of interactions with solicitors?
   There are different clubs that could potentially interest people. I know I have to join clubs and make more social interactions. Since I’ve been at UCLA, I have not really made friends, and I live in an apartment in Westwood, but I do not have many friends. I need to also build my resume for a better job, and I know that joining those clubs that are on Bruin Walk would be good. I am just socially awkward, but that’s something I need to work on. The good thing is that whenever I am ready Bruin Walk is there for me to go and join a club or something.

Interview 3: Solicitor for a Pre-Med Club

1. Are there any circumstances in which you won’t approach someone?
   “If someone is intentionally avoidant I probably won’t talk to them. Body language is very indicative. If people are in a large group I probably won’t talk to them either.”
2. Do you think it’s rude when people ignore you?
   “I don’t think it’s rude when people ignore me, but it’s nice when they acknowledge me. I get that people don’t want to be bothered, because sometimes I’m walking on Bruin Walk and just want to be left alone”