My Breaching Social Norm Experiment

Have you ever wondered why we hold the doors for those behind us? How about the reason we use utensils when we eat? What about why we always stand facing the doors in the elevator? These are all examples of what are known as social norms. According to Dr. Ward social norms are “basic rules of society that help people know what is and is not appropriate to do in any situation.” These basic rules of society are usually unwritten and unspoken and many of us pick up on them over time. Although, some social norms are very common throughout many cultures, there is a lot of them that vary depending on which culture you are apart of. For example, here in America, a major social norm that we have is when eating, the polite thing to do is to use spoons and forks, instead of digging in with your hands. For instance, we would not eat spaghetti with our hands but we would use a fork. In some Thiland cultures it is considered rude to put most foods in your mouth with a fork. Then there is also some cultures such as Chile in which it is impolite to use your hands for anything, even foods such as french fries, they use forks while eating.

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.

For my nonconformity/compliance assignment I chose to violate a social norm. I felt that doing it only once would not suffice, so I tried it a few times to see if the results varied from person to person. I went ahead and started with refusing a handshake. The first instance was a friend introducing me to a friend of theirs. He reached his hand out and I just looked at it and shook my head. I must admit it was hard to keep a straight face, but I managed. Concerning my personal feelings, I was surprised at how uncomfortable I was, considering that I was aware that it was an experiment. Despite this knowledge, I still felt a mild rush of embarrassment. His reaction was what I had

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.

I brainstormed and contemplated about what social norm I should break in order to achieve this assignment. I fathom the idea that some social norms and expectations would be quite difficult to accomplish. Surprisingly, without much thought I knew exactly what norm I wanted to break. I decided to break the well known concept that each gender must go to the restroom in their designated restroom area. I planned on starting the assignment by choosing a few public restrooms in which I would enter the men’s restroom. That particular behavior breaks a social norm because with most public restrooms; genders are separated by signs or names. Thus, there should be no reason why men or women end up going into the same restroom. I personally believe that

To break the social norm, I went trick or treating in the mall, wearing a Halloween costume. I broke the social norm by not trick or treating on Halloween. The social norm is to trick or treat on Halloween. To break this norm, I went to the mall and went trick or treating in three stores. I said “trick or treat” to any customer and worker who was in the store as well as wore a Wonder Women costume. At the mall, people walk around, look in stores, and buy clothes or any kind of merchandise. The typical norms at the mall are that when you see a person or an employee in a store, you say “Hello”, “Good Morning”, “Good Afternoon”, or “Good Evening”. Trick or treating and wearing a costume not on Halloween and at the mall is considered to be deviant.

I experimented with this three times when I was at the Dobbs University Commons, more commonly known as the DUC cafeteria where many Emory students would eat throughout the day. The social norm in this environment was much like any other eating establishment: people sat with others that they knew close enough to open their personal space to them. If they did not see anyone that they recognized, then they tended to sit by themselves. I broke this social norm by sitting with three different types of people that I did not know, two of those strangers that I voluntarily sat with as part of my experiment and the third as an accidental occurrence where I was the victim that had my so-called personal space violated. The three individuals for my experiment

For this social norms experiment my group decided to do several things. One experiment we did was to go up to people and ask if they wanted to go to the restroom with us, however on the poster it read, “Let’s get loco at homecoming.” This would cause the person being asked to feel uncomfortable and confused at the same time. One guy said, “Yeah let’s go,” another said “no” and started cursing, and many looked confused and didn’t say much. Two people that were being asked, that knew us, didn’t seem so uncomfortable because they knew we were joking. During this process I did not want to do this because I was scared of what others would think of me. Once I started doing it, I got the hang of it, and didn’t feel so scared anymore. I could feel

My experiment consisted of me asking strangers, on the streets of Downtown Grand Rapids, for directions to Rosa Park’s Circle, and invading their personal space. To start, I would approach a stranger; tell them that I am lost, and that I am in need of directions to the Rosa Park’s Circle. As strangers began giving directions to me, I inched closer and closer to them. In addition to invading their personal space, I also held intense eye contact with them, trying my best not to blink. The whole time, although it was difficult, I kept a straight face while I performed my experiment. To make sure that I gathered enough information, and a variety of results, I tested my

Brenda Rocha Dr. Nathaniel Clark Introduction to Sociology September 16, 2014 Social Norm Violation Essay Everyone is taught at an early age what to do and how to act. When someone violates a social norm, it can cause people to feel uncomfortable, confused, and maybe even humorous. A social norm is an unspoken “law” on how individuals should perform in unusual situations.

Remember, these people will always like you, to some degree, no matter what. Even if you break social norms or are awkward about it, they'll forgive you, still give you their information, and hang out with you. So take advantage of this and ask!

Statistical deviance looks are rare or infrequent instances and if someone falls outside the norm they could have a disorder. On the outside it seems using common sense would be a good idea. If someone is acting different from the majority of the population there might be something wrong with them. This criteria is also very objective and measurements are easier to take. All one has to do is see how if someone acts outside the norm and how much. However, there are many problems with this criteria. Who’s to say how far is too far from the norm. Normal behavior would be set on a bell curve, any behavior on either ends would be considered abnormal, even if it’s just a high IQ that people are often praised for and not labeled as having a disorder. Not every unusual behavior is a disorder, as being left handed is unusual and not a disorder, and not ever disorder is rare, such as alcoholism.

Social norms, expected behaviors that are acceptable within society, have continued to be an important part of peoples’ everyday lives whether they are intentional or automatic. The violation of a social norm was studied through field research, a method used to collect data that occurs outside of the laboratory (Conley, 2011, pgs. 58-61, 91-92). At Weis, a grocery store in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, I attempted to buy one grape from the produce department. I approached the check-out counter and tried to purchase this item. As I did this, I received many reactions from customers, the cashier, as well as a manager of the store. There were many different ages and races present, providing me with a variety of responses. One example is the

I was feeling a little more confident so I immediately stood about two-and-a-half feet away from him. He glanced at me at first, but did not say anything. Another customer and asked, “Do you mind if I just reach across you to grab that?” It was clear that the customer assumed we were together. When the other customer walked away, the subject stepped about a foot away from me. I casually stepped closer to him, as if I were following him. He then asked me, “Did you need to get over here?” I replied, “No, I’m OK” and continued to browse the section. He seemed very intimidated by my presence, though he had a very strong outward appearance, and spoke with firm, assertive tone. He finally grabbed his item, and then gave me a quick head nod and grimace goodbye. I followed him to the checkout line. When we approached the line, I was standing less than two feet behind him. He looked back and said, “It’s OK, you can go ahead of me.” As soon as I stepped in front, he moved approximately 4 feet away from me.

At a very early age, children learn about social norms to help them become proper citizens in society. Examples of some social norms that students learn are: “do not yell in the library,” “do not speak unless spoken to,” “do not talk to strangers,” and “close the door when you use the restroom.” As you grow older, these rules become unspoken because everyone knows how to act like a proper individual in society. The textbook definition of a social norm is something that is a rule of behavior that society accepts. (Bicchieri) Since everyone knows these unsaid rules of society, what would happen when someone decides not to follow these rules? What would people think and react? In this paper, I discuss my violation of the social norm “don’t talk to strangers” and discuss what I learned from this experiment.