A Social Norm Experiment

Have you ever done something so odd and so weird that you got hundreds of funny looks in your direction? Usually, when you get these looks, you are breaking some sort of social norm. Social norms are rules of behavior that are considered acceptable in a society during certain situations, but breaking the social norms can be highly frowned upon in the social world we live in today. Certain social norms that are universally known include driving on the right side of the road, keeping a pinky promise and living by the golden rule. Social norms can keep a community together and running smoothly if used, but many people like to push the boundaries of normality to see what happens and how others will respond. Although, I do not embarrass easily, I thought it would be interesting to see people’s reactions if for just one day I violated a social norm.

Following the customs and fashion of a social group is a key part of social interaction. For example, stated in Kivisto, “To follow custom is to be accepted by your group” (101). When a person is involved in a group, it is easy to be accepted when you follow the customary behavior and fashions of that group. This customary behavior provides security of knowing what is right within a group without the social risk associated with individual choice (101). In many instances, it is often easier to follow the group norms instead of taking the risk of making an individual decision. Simmel had many thoughts about fashion and customs. Stated in the text, “Simmel thought that, in his time, fashion was escaping the bounds of mere personal accouterments

The title of this odd social experiment is Parental Permission. The title will make more sense once you become more familiar with the project. The aim of this project was to break an everyday social norm; a social norm is a set of rules or behaviors that are considered acceptable in society or among a group. As citizens of a society we all adhere to many social norms, a very common social norm is tipping a waiter or simply wearing clothes.

As stated earlier, this experiment completely proved my hypothesis wrong. Many of the people that rode the elevator with me stared at me as though there were something wrong with me. Most were uncomfortable and fidgety and kept looking over their shoulder at me as they rode forward, and me, backwards. More than a few asked if I was alright and even asked my friend, who was acting as if he did not know me, knew what was was wrong. I even conducted a few controlled experiments where I rode the elevator forward to see if people would react to me then, but not a single person outside of the experiment even acknowledged my existence. I would have thought that in a place like L.A. County, people would be too busy to notice others, or people would have been raised to mind their own business and keep to themselves, but apparently abiding my social standards and making sure that others do as well is a higher priority.

For my breaching social norm experiment I was determined to do something I would never do even if it was a dare, especially since my ability to interact with strangers is not the best. So, I decided to make people feel uncomfortable by holding their hand. What I would do is walk up to the person from behind and slowly make my way to their hand to make them feel even more uncomfortable. People normally hold hands with their significant other, or with someone they know like a friend or family member, so to be holding hands with a stranger is out of the ordinary and awkward.

We live in a world where we are defined and judged by our every detail. It does not matter if it is our race, religion, gender, sexuality, or economic status, people are always ready to make inaccurate conclusions of who we are. The problem with this is that over time it has made our society fill with hatred, leading to certain groups feeling as if they are superior to others. Minorities have been oppressed and and discriminated against with barely any hope for the future. As a result, it is up to people worldwide to come together and fight for the right of equality.

The reason this is breaking a social norm is because usally when you go places, people don’t smile or say anything, we all just look at each other and keep going about our day. I would say this has an positve outlook on society because you don’t usally see poeple walking around all simily all the time or they look grumpy, it’s like you give what you get, I gave out smiles and got a couple back, so I look at it as I might of just made someones day. While conducting this experiment, I did feel weird, because i’m usally like those other people who don’t smile back or act like they didn’t see me. It was like stepping out of your comfort zone but once I got to doing it after a while, I didn’t feel nervous or weird

In society, we are accustomed to the normative social influence of rules for us to follow, from how we act in public to what we wear. Whether it was visible to us at the time or not the general public does follow this social norm that governs us for one simplistic reason, we don’t want to be embarrassed for being out of the social norm. The need for social acceptance is presented in our everyday behaviors, actions, and reactions to social normalities. Even with the acceptation of the many people who pretend not to notice a change in a person social norm, when a social norm is broken, the majority will notice it. However I did learn something during the time I was the social norms breaker, “individuals will tend to either fully conform to the

When offered the opportunity to shake someone’s foundation a bit by testing social norms I was initially hesitant. I thought to myself what could I possibly do that would meet the requirements for the assignment and not utterly embarrass me in the process. As luck would have it I was stuck in yet another endless meeting at work. I found my mind wandering to my “to do list” as often happens in these situations. I remembered this assignment and thought to myself…why not. I then opted to never break contact with people I worked with for an entire day. What better place to start then in a meeting where my victims were essentially trapped.

Social norms have always played a major role in today's society. A social norm is how we consider behaviors to be appropriate. However, norms are the rules and guidelines regarding what kinds of behavior are acceptable (Mills 1959). Social norms are essentially the means by which any given society may construct and organize itself. They are the ways in which a society defines what tends to be acceptable and unacceptable when it comes to an individual. Different views change over time whether it is through history or an individual themselves who tends to age. Sometimes staying up to date with society and keeping up with the new trends can be unhealthy and have an effect on individuals and the public. The social norm I choose to break was walking into a public men's restroom at a restaurant while out with friends. I choose this social norm because it shows the men's reactions and behaviors once I entered their restroom. However, their behaviors showed how society acts toward certain situations in certain places and what roles are played during the process.

Considering social norms are defined as common expectations that rule people’s behavior, social control is used by people in society to ensure others follow these expectations. As seen in the experiments, my friends’ reactions show me that the social norm of eye contact is significant because they tried to socially control my behavior to make me look them in the eyes. These forms of informal punishment include, my friend in the first experiment who moved in closer, my friend in the second experiment who moved his head around, and my roommate in the third experiment who asked me how I was doing; all in an effort to get my attention through eye contact. Additionally, while I was breaking the social norm, I felt uncomfortable since it was difficult for me to not make eye contact with them, even when they attempted to socially control me.

Social norms hold the power to change and develop the way people act, in valuable ways or bad, in this case, bad. During the 1700’s the slave trade industry in the thirteen colonies was a rapidly growing commerce, this was the dawning of the peak of one of the largest negative social norms, racism. Racism was an ordinary instance throughout of the world during the 1700’s and through the 1900’s and it still exists today. Racism has alternated the United States and the rest of the world. It was very challenging to change the social norm itself and it still hasn’t been defeated. Throughout history the majority of people have held the power to create influential or harmful social norms and

Normative social influences guide people to understand what is and what is not acceptable behaviour in certain social contexts, and for the most part, people seem to conform (Droogendyk, 2016). The normative social influence or “social norm” that was violated and that this paper focuses on is sitting in the back seat of a car when there is only two people in the vehicle. This is classed as a descriptive social norm, and is so because it does not have any sort of moral component. It is a common understanding of how a person should act in a given situation (Aronson, Wilson, Fehr, & Akert, 2013). These descriptive norms usually have a powerful impact on how a person behaves and motivates them to act a certain way (Droogendyk, 2016). In this case,

In this social norm project, my experiment was invading someone else 's personal space. The process began by sitting close to a person that was by themselves; then, I started to get close when they looked to another direction or their phones. What normally a person would do when they tired or they want to sit, they mostly sit apart from a stranger or they sit with a distance between them. What I did in my project is that I sat close to a stranger when there is space where I could go and sit. The purpose for this project is to see their reactions and response with these abnormal invasion of their personal space.

To summarize the articles; “What isn’t for sale?” by Michael J. Sandel, and “The Cost of Social Norms” by Dan Ariely, in the articles both authors discuss the relationship between markets and society, and how they are intertwined even though they shouldn’t which is partially caused by market values entering society and affecting the regular norms of society causing money to be the first thing on everybody’s mind.