How Age Expectations Affect Metro Seating Choices

When one is a certain age, they are ascribed a specific status in the public sphere, a role with which expectations regarding to action and interaction are placed. The question I aimed to answer was ‘How do age expectations influence whether people choose to stand in a metro while empty seats are available?’.

The method I used was noting whom the available seats were next to, who chose to sit down and who chose to stand. I noted this behavior on Metro 51 (from Uilenstede to Weesperplein) at both 9:30am on Monday and 10am on Wednesday. Due to these times, the majority of commuters seemed to be students (people from 18-25), and the elderly (65+). About 80% of all commuters seemed to be between 18-25 years of age. In using this method I was, of course, assuming age based on facial features, body shape and hair color.

What I discovered was that the younger demographic was more likely to stand while there were empty seats than the older demographic. Moreover, the older commuters were more likely to ask someone who was sitting on an aisle seat to sit down. Both generations would take a seat if an entire row was available. In an hour, 30 older people sat next to a stranger, while only 14 younger people chose to sit. During the course of the metro ride, there were 4-5 empty seats at any given time, and there were an average of 6 people standing. When a younger person would enter the metro, they wouldn’t check to see if there were empty seats if someone else was standing, whereas older people would always check for empty seats. Moreover, younger people were mostly on their phones, rather than looking around the metro. The age of the person already sitting down next to an empty seat didn’t seem to influence whether someone would sit next to them, however I noted that both older and younger commuters were more likely to sit next to a female than a male, and someone of their own ethnicity.

Age roles seem to have a large influence on whether commuters choose to stand while there are empty seats. The expectation of younger commuters to be healthy (easily able to stand) and to be polite (avoid disrupting others) appears to greatly influence their decision to stand. In contrast, the expectation of older commuters to be less able to stand, have a higher status than younger commuters, and be taken care of appears to make them much more comfortable in addressing strangers on the metro in order to sit down.