Well, not tossing money into the hat, or not stopping to listen, doesn't mean people don't necessarily appreciate fine music. People are busy on their way to wherever they planned to be that day. The people who paid $100 to hear the guy in a theater arranged their day to have the time to sit and listen, whereas the people in the subway were on their way to somewhere - most likely their jobs. And, there's nothing to say one MUST put money into a street person's collection box.
A friend was telling me about the book he's currently reading, and it's a bunch of college students of psychology or something, doing similar type experiments, to see people's reactions.
One was, a group of them goes into a restaurant and they sit at various tables. Then each one begins doing something odd, like swattng at imaginary flies, spilling coffee, talking out loud, etc. Then they stop, wait about 10 minutes, and do the sequence all over again. This goes on for an hour or more.
Another one, a whole bunch of them dress in bright blue polo shirts and khaki pants, and one by one enter a Best Buy store, and stand in various spots all around the store. Not doing anything; just standing there. Maybe 50 of them. It's confusing to the customers, confusing to the employees... management called the police, but the cops said, "There's nothing illegal about wearing blue shirts and khaki pants and standing in a store." Eventually, the group left the store, filing out slowly, one by one.
