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The 'Towel Phenomenon' depicts the behaviour in which tourists reserve sun-beds with their towels. It is seen as a stereotypical behaviour amongst German tourists, but in recent times it has spread among nations. Reasons as to why this phenomenon occurs have been proposed by several people, referring back to theories from social and evolutionary psychology. The phenomenon has caused several problems in tourist areas, resulting in certain steps being made to properly prevent the unfortunate consequences.

Definition

The `Towel Phenomenon´ is a colloquial term that is used to describe the incidences where people (typically Germans) reserve deck chairs or sun-beds with their own towel. The intention behind it, is to possess the best seat possible and reserve it, so the person is able to come and go as they please.. This behaviour is typically seen in the poolside and beach areas but it has also spread to other areas such as self-service restaurants or even in libraries. It is seen as a stereotypical behaviour amongst the germanic population. However nowadays, the phenomenon can be observed from people with other nationalities. The use of towels is only one example of reserving seats which has gained a lot of recognition.

History

In the 1990's a burst of articles came to light, illustrating the comedic behaviour in which the Germans undertake this phenomena. One of the first articles dated in 1994, came from the Daily Mail, illustrated a cartoon of a German couple spreading their towels along the parade route a year before the celebration. Another examples of such depiction is, in the Independent on 4 February 1997, a cartoon showing a football pitch covered in towels with the caption “Reserved for Germany”. These are just a few satirical examples illustrating the stereotypical behaviour of the Germans. Although there is no real evidence about the earliest beginnings of this phenomenon, reports from Zeitzeugen suggest that it had been practiced before popular media started writing about it.

This phenomenon has since entered the millennium, where it has generated traffic on the internet, and several discussions in the media. With the number of accounts, it has created a stereotype and holiday experience for whoever is faced with deserted towels at a resort or beach. Blogs, videos and articles have been dedicated to this event voicing the outrage of the vacationers who face this, the supposed psychology behind it and the new inventions of rules installed by the resort which ban this method. However, since 2014, the Germans seem to have reached their own limit regarding this 'practice' and have debated about their sole involvement in this particular method.

Psychological background

Competition

One reason behind the engagement in reserving, is the notion that most people want to strive for a superior position in comparison to others. This competitive behaviour stems from the desire to be seen as more successful, which can be based on the principle of 'unidirectional drive upward' seen in the social comparison theory proposed by Festinger. According to this principle, competitive behaviour is elicited in order to maintain or manifest a status of superiority. Hence, reserving the best seat at the pool, the table with the most spectacular view in the hotel restaurant or just the quietest seat in the library could be pursued by us in order to demonstrate our exceeding position in our locality.

Social learning

The social learning theory proposed by B.F Skinner, attempts to explain normative human behaviour on the basis of conditioning, particularly operant conditioning. Operant conditioning is the process of learning through consequences, resulting in a modification of actions based on the reinforcements. In the towel phenomenon, the act of reserving the best sun-bed is rewarded with having the fortunate opportunity of having the easiest, fastest and nearest access to the pool or even a nice rewarding spot under the sun or shade. According to operant conditioning, the positive reinforcement of the reserving leads to the high probability of engaging future reserving behaviours.

Whereas with observational learning, another form of conditioning introduced by Bandura, gives reason to why this phenomenon still exists today. Observational learning also known as modeling, is the process of learning by observing what consequences a certain behaviour receives and imitate it. By viewing other people's success in getting the best seat by the pool through reserving it with their towel, it is more likely that one is motivated to adopt this technique to gain advantage.

German predisposition to the towel phenomenon

Before the phenomenon even existed, Sigmund Freud recognised a common behaviour in which he claims that all Germans suffer from. This is known as 'Erwartungsangst' which translates to the 'fear of what is to come'. It means that the Germans always expect the worst to come and despise the loss of control. So with the application of this to the towel phenomena, the Germans would fear of being at a disadvantage from not claiming ownership of a desirable sun-bed, which in turn will ruin their holiday experience.

Territorial behaviour

The term 'territorial behaviour' is a fundamental mechanism in the social behaviour of animals and humans. From an evolutionary perspective marking one's own territory is important for limiting competitors. For example, limiting food access for competitors who come in your territory. Relating back to the towel phenomenon, this behaviour is not essential to survive but it can be seen as an primary instinct that is still incorporated in humans, but nowadays is expressed in modern competitive situations. People want to 'save' their spots in the beginning of the day to reduce the number of competitors who want to claim it first.

Conforming, pluralistic ignorance, and de-individuation

Conforming can be seen as both the consequence and the cause of the phenomenon. Norms can be defined as, behavioural uniformities of a group that define the members of this group. They form a framework for socially accepted behaviour. Conformity is therefore often based on social norms. If, in the group of vacationers, the behaviour of reserving towels is widespread, people might consider this as a norm and copy the behaviour which in turn leads to an even larger problem of not being able to find a free space.

A different but related approach to the towel phenomenon is pluralistic ignorance. It occurs when members of a group privately reject a norm but accept it in public, solely due to erroneously assuming that this norm is valued by other group members. The resulting consequences associated with the towel phenomenon are similar to conforming. Through observing the behaviour of mass towel reservations, people might consider it as socially acceptable and therefore accept it themselves and so end up copying the behaviour.

Another psychological phenomenon that can at least, in the broadest sense, be related to towel reservations is, deindividuation (usually used to explain group phenomenons such as the bystander effect). Due to the fact that towel reservations usually happen in the morning before breakfast when many guests are still sleeping, and the fact that all hotel towels look similar, it is difficult to accuse an individual for performing the act. Thus, this deindividuation leads to a transgression of anti-social behaviour just because of anonymity. An additional effect of deindividuation that comes along with anonymity, is the diffusion of responsibility. Hotel guests lose their sense of responsibility either because the towels all look the same or because many people engage in the phenomenon. The whole process ends up in a vicious cycle, that can probably only end by rules put forward by the hotel.

Consequences

The towel phenomena carries a number of consequences. For one, other visitors or guests end up being highly disturbed by the amount of towels laying around without anyone to claim them. Seemingly, an entire day will go by, but the owners of these towels will only show up for a few hours and leave with or without their towels to go and do other activities. It is disturbing because many have wasted their precious time in looking for an available seat, some being successful and some not. This somewhat selfish behaviour has lead to a massive uproar in the hotels as well as on social media.

Other patrons see this phenomena as stressful, being unable to relax in asserted spots. Since many reservers will get up early in the morning to claim their spot, there is a possibility that others are unable to sleep without disturbances such as the loud noises made when reservers drag the lounge chairs back and forth.

When addressing this behaviour to the hoarders, fellow patrons are often met with aggressive confrontations ending in verbal or physical conflicts. Some, in order to avoid confrontation, have also been seen to throw the towels into the bushes or pools, resulting in even more aggression on the reserver’s part.

This trend seems to bring more stress than relief to all parties involved, questioning the reasoning behind it.

Prevention

One way of preventing this from happening is an adaption of techniques already used in airports and car-parking. It consists of three components: a reservation, a ticket and a break disk.

For example, upon reservation of a hotel room, one must also be obliged to reserve a sun-bed if they want. So at reception, alongside the key to their room, they will also receive a break disk and a ticket containing the number of their sun-bed. With the concept of a break disk, whenever a person would leave their sun-bed, they would have to put a time that they left so others are aware of how long the person has been gone. Different hotels have different time limits but as an example, after an hour, the staff would have the right to take away the towel. As for the ticket in hand, this is a way to ensure that the towel would be returned to the rightful owner. So if one loses a ticket, you may not receive your towel. In order to appeal the hotel guests to support the hotel’s initiative, this preparatory request has to be promoted in the most effective way.

Another simple method suggested by guests was to increase the number of sun-beds. However with this method, hotels would have to spend more and thus, costs would be much higher.

Evidence from several studies suggest that prosocial behaviour can be evoked by means of social norms. So as a way of prevention, information about how others behave in an ambiguous situation is a powerful motivational factor in guiding behaviour. Therefore, signs in the swimming pool area depicting a normative appeal, for example, 'Help us to make the pool area a friendlier place: 80% of our guests participated in the new lounger reservation concept', are proposed to be especially effective.

A further factor in strengthening commitment is suggested to be the norm of reciprocation. This is when a person is expected to cooperate with individuals who do something for them first and then later ask for a favour in return. For the concept to work out well and to minimise the perceived demand to the hotel guest, the hotel administration could show initiative by reviewing the deck chairs and also making sure that the atmosphere in the pool area more friendly. According to the reciprocation principle, the hotel guest would be more willing to participate in the lounger reservation concept, if offered an improvement before being asked to cooperate. The norm of reciprocation could be conveyed as follows, “We are doing our part to make the pool area more friendly to our guests. Can we count on you?".

With both, the social norm and the reciprocation norm, it is important that the hotel guest feels that this commitment is coming from free will and not from being asked by the hotel staff. Hotel guests should feel as 'partners' in this respect and therefore signs in the swimming pool area and in the hotel rooms are expected to be more effective than direct appeals by the staff.

References

Category:Social phenomena