Examples Of Breaking Cultural Norms

I. Introduction

The purpose of this experiment was to break a cultural norm. In order to achieve this, we decided to press all of the buttons in an elevator, and gauge the responses of the other passengers. The objective was to see how people would react or respond to this odd act. We believed that people would become irritated and say something to us or other passengers. If we press every button on an elevator, then bystanders will be visibly uncomfortable with this deviation from the cultural norm.
II. Methods
For our experiment, we chose to press every button in an elevator. To begin, we started on the main floor of the Thomas Cooper Library and chose an elevator at random. Then, we entered the elevator and proceeded to press all the buttons. After, we recorded the ourselves and the other rider’s reactions. This process was repeated five times. On the end of the fifth ride, we debriefed the remaining participant and recorded his thoughts on the experiment.
III. Data
Throughout the course of the experiment, our emotions changed.
First, we expected there to be more expressive body language instead of verbal communication once on the elevator when the norm was broken. We expected the subjects to roll their eyes, give angry or aggravated looks to the norm breaker, and to express a look of irritation on their faces. Our second expectation was that the participants will portray some kind of a negative attitude once they realized that all buttons on the elevator had been pushed, seemingly without the reason. This expectation of negative attitude not only included body language, but also actual negative verbal language as well. Lastly, we predicted everyone on the elevator to notice that someone was pressing all the buttons without getting off on that stop. We assumed thought that people will would obviously know we intentionally tampered with the button