VR DIVE BAR: Double TopiC Probe

Author names: Peter Grzywacz

For Teachers 

A double topic probe is a great way to get to know someone quickly and keep the conversation genuinely alive in  it's most initial stages.  If two or three double topic probes fail,  you and the other person probably have very little in common, someone is  very badly off, or its just bad luck.

If someone asks you, what are you into, don't just say soccer.  Give two options and wait to see which the person responds to.  Follow the conversation in that direction.

Target Group: I had the honor of teaching 4 Latin American salesman twice a month in a semi-social event that always took place in bars.  Their main goal was to be able to take clients out, so I would bring friends, give them fake roles, and the would try to sell stuff to us while enjoying ourselves.

This part only includes small talk, not what happens afterwards.

Main Learning Objectives: 

• Successfully deploy double topic probes to gauge which the listener feels more interested in.

Materials Needed: 

-Dive Bar Pool table that displays short choices for people to stand next to, to mark agreement.
-AI to practice double topic probes on.

Activity Instructions

 Without explaining to the students, the teacher introduces two topics at once and sees which the students react more strongly to.
"So yesterday, I was playing soft tennis with my friend and then we went over to a new cafe in the neighborhood." <pause and wait for reaction to one of the stimuli>

This technique is useful for gauging the interest of new people, as it splits the risk of hitting a boring topic in half as long as the person speaking is genuinely interested in both topis: soft tennis and new cafe.

Then the teacher will utilize the pool table, utilizing only two corners.  This pool table displays two stimuli, these two stimuli are 

Later students will deply double topic probes on the AI, and come back with a report with their double topic probes and what stimuli the AI responded to.

Students will attempt to build their own double topic probes.
The teacher and students will say which they think is more interesting of the stimuli, and rate the double topic probe for its naturalness (sometimes topics can be too disparate and this attracts unwanted attention to the disparity instead of the responders interests)

For Students 

THE STUDENTS GET NOTHING.  PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR THE UNKNOWN!