Violating Social Norms

I wanted to choose a social setting and role that is common to most members of society throughout the course of the day. In one way or another, be it direct or indirect, most people in American society play the role of a consumer or customer. I also wanted the business to be a fairly common and causal, but also a place with frequent and busy customers. The social norm I chose to defy was simple, go through the drive thru and

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.

For this project, Breaking a Social Norm, I decided to violate people’s personal space. At the beginning, when I heard about this and how I felt in preparation for the experiment is that I am seriously skeptical, dreading, terrified, anxious, and this is going to be the toughest challenge in my life that I have ever encountered. I started the experiment on Black Friday at the Great Mall where there were going to be a lot of crowds and it is in the public. First, I sat next to this random stranger, a mid-thirties woman, who near the food court and I am thinking to myself just get it over with and pray that nothing bad will happen during the experiment. So, I sat to this stranger very close until there is no space. In addition, she was texting

Deviance is an act that goes against the social norms such as rules or expectations. It can be something small such as running through the stop signs or it can be something big such as hijacking an airplane. Deciding if the act is deviant or not depends on the context (society, environment, etc.). According to Howard S. Becker, it is not the act itself, but the reactions to the act that, makes something deviant. Deviance is not a word that is used for judging people, but it is used to refer to an act to which people respond negatively. Norms vary among different cultural groups, therefore, one deviant act in one group might not be deviant to another. For example, it will be considered deviant or going against the norm if someone decided to

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.

When looking at the American Society, it’s interesting how everything seems to just work and run a certain way. Society is built on a set of social norms that set standards for everyday living. A norm can be defined as a way of thought or action that is acceptable by the majority of society. Individuals might not be sure why exactly they do something, but if everyone else is doing it, then why not? The social norm we’ve decided to break this semester is the idea of only taking what belongs to you. We plan on going to different dining areas on the Northern Illinois campus, and joining tables with complete strangers. While starting a conversation, we will have one girl begin sharing food off of the stranger’s plate and seeing how they react to this unconventional social interaction. Many individuals would not share their food with their friends, let alone total

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.

When I entered the men’s restroom, I acted as if I were using the bathroom in one of the stalls. Pretty soon I overheard two young men enter. After they shut their stalls, I “flushed” my toilet and started to rinse my hands. The men finished and came out of their stalls at the same time. They both froze and looked directly at me. They looked like UNC Charlotte students. One of them stated, “what the f*ck?” The other guy laughed, and asked me if I knew I was in the wrong restroom. I stated that I did know. His response was, “why would you come in here?” I told him, “I needed to use the restroom, is it wrong for a lady to use the men’s restroom?” They both laughed and the other guy asked if it was a prank. Right when that question was asked, an older man entered the restroom. When the man saw all of us in there, he looked confused and decided to walk right back out. At that point I told the two guys speaking to me that I did it for a school assignment. We all laughed again and then the young man I was speaking with mostly, asked for my number. I politely declined and left the restaurant afterwards.

All six studies used self-reports. Although this methodology clearly has its shortcomings, available alternatives are not necessarily better. I wanted to examine not just one but multiple behaviors that violate social norms. In addition, I wanted to examine the relationship between social control and civil courage, which would not have been possible if the design had enacted a single uncivil/immoral behavior like Baumert et al. (2013), Chekroun and Brauer (2002). Future studies may benefit from the inclusion of behavioral measures of people's actual reactions to norm transgressions. In an earlier study (Brauer & Chekroun, 2005), the correlation between self-reported social control reactions and actual behaviors was .86 (across situations).

During the social norm violation experiment, my partner and I found that by violating simple social norms people can react either calmly or highly confused. The social norm we chose to violate was asking for someone else’s seat in class and at lunch. My partner and I believed that most of the participants would react either confused or just give up their seat to be nice. To follow through with the experiment, my partner went up to ten different students while either in lunch or in class and politely asked to switch seats. I observed the whole situation, I watched the difference in each person’s body language, tone, attitude, and their answer. Most of the time, whenever my partner asked a student for their seat, they looked at her confused at

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 what I consider advanced. 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 infrequent and abnormal.

We got into an RV and I was explaining to him what I was looking for. As a disclaimer, I wasn’t wasting his time or taking him from a real sale. I am considering purchasing a 5th wheel to live in for a couple years once my divorce finalizes this summer. Anyway, while I was whispering to him what I was looking for and price range he did stand within 2ft of me. That was as close as he got. From there he would lean in from the shoulders up, and I heard “excuse me” quite often. While interacting with the rep, my son called. I excused myself to take the call and when I answered I used my normal voice. The confusion that hit this males face was radiating, and from there you could tell he was getting very nervous. After getting off the phone I notice he increased his distance and I noticed he had a wedding ring on. He no longer seemed interested in selling me an RV, but more in getting me out of there. The conversation was steered from ‘we can work on financing’ to ‘let me know when you’re ready’. In fact, I had to ask him for his card and he seemed somewhat reluctant to give me one. I decided at this point to let the poor man off the hook, so I did tell him why I was whispering and assured him that I was indeed considering purchasing an RV. He didn’t seem amused but he did seem somewhat relieved. His face relaxed, he let out a long breath but his eyes were scrunched and

The norm I decided to break was number two: proximity norms. I decided that school was the perfect place to test our this project. I think it's safe to say that in our culture, it's not exactly normal to stand too close to complete stranger, or even in this case, friends. If it was normal, we wouldn't have to popular term, "personal space" and/or our "personal bubbles."

The social norm I violated was leaning or being near the sides or corners of an elevator. I volunteered in a hospital during my spring break so I decided to violate the elevators social norm, because I have to constantly take the elevator. In my nature, I am very timid, so violating a social norm required guts and perseverance. When I entered the elevator, I stood in the middle of the elevator while everyone else were leaning on the sides or corners. After a quick few seconds of standing in the middle of the elevator, the nurses were not taking their eyes off of me and were murmuring. The doctor literally asked me if I was feeling okay and politely asked me to go to the volunteer office right away so I can be sent for a checkup with one of the doctors. The patient stared at me for a few moments and looked away because he looked really ill. While walking out of the elevator, the two nurses continued to murmur and constantly looked at me until I was gone from their vicinity.

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.