ABSTRACT
When I was about twelve years old, growing up in Frankfurt, Germany, I had an exper i ence that I would not want to have missed. My mother asked me to look for a pair of trousers for myself at the shop ping malls, all assembled in a crowded pedes trian zone. The many oncom ing pedes tri ans turned this into a demand ing exer cise. It became increas ingly annoy ing to step aside again and again. More trouble some was the fact that I was at a disad vant age as a twelve-year-old. There seemed to be a secret hier archy at work, inform ing others that a twelve-year-old would have to give in and let others enjoy the right of way. The more this happened, the more I thought about how to chal lenge the priv ilege enjoyed by all others. I tried to insist on my right but observed that the insist ence of others was more force ful. I then thought about a more tricky strategy, which gener ated the fi rst fi eld exper i ment of my life. It required all the courage available to a normal twelve-year-old. I closed my eyes and held both hands across my face to signal all oncom ing pedes tri ans that I would be unable to observe them and react. I contin ued walking with some discom fort. If others would insist on their priv ilege, we would bump into each other. But luckily they did not. They took notice of the fact that I was unable to recog nise them and stepped aside. They yelled at me but avoided the colli sion. The result was a tremend ous success.
