Breaking Norms

Breaking Norms

Over the first few weeks of the semester we have gone over many topics such as mores, taboos, rules, regulations, and laws. But there is one topic that stood out the most and that was the idea of norms. Norms are much more different than that of mores, taboos, rules, regulations, and laws. Rules, regulations, and laws are clearly defined and outlined rules that the public must abide by. Mores are a set of norms that define fundameental ideas about what is considered right, wrong, or moral. Taboos are norms that society strongly holds so much that violating one would result in extreme disgust. But norms on the other hand are quiet different. Norms as defined by the text are the informal, unwritten rules that guide people's behavior. Last week we were given the assignment to pick a norm of our liking that didn't include breaking any laws, taboos, or mores. After taking time to truly think over which social norm I would break I chose one that particularly gets under my skin and that was sitting next to someone in an open area. To break this norm I would go to an area that was a sparsely populated with pretty open seating and instead of sitting far away from people as most people would, I would choose to sit right next or at least closer than most. I chose to conduct my experiment at Laurel Park Mall in Livonia near my mother's job. Like I stated before I hate when there is an abundance of seats to choose from and someone chooses to sit next to me especially if I that person I a complete stranger.
Before I did the experiment I felt really weird because I knew that this was gonna be really awkward and I knew how people were gonna feel because