Examples Of Breaking Social Norms

Social norms are the customary rules that govern behavior in groups and societies, and if one chooses to violate these norms various things will happen. Some examples of social norms can be simple and some more complex but the simplest form can leave the most impact. To test the outcome of breaking social norms, I had to think of norms that would be easily broken and safe for me to conduct. As I thought these ten crossed my mind:
• Locking eyes with someone in a grocery aisle
• Have an animated conversation with yourself in public
• Wear your clothes backwards
• Ask strangers if you can cut in line. If they ask why, state you don’t feel like waiting in line.

• Face the back of the elevator while using it
• Sing loudly on a public bus, subway, or train
• Position yourself six inches from an acquaintance's nose during a conversation
• Stand on your chair in a restaurant and recite the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance
• Get into an elevator that is crowded with
strangers, and after the doors close, introduce yourself to the group
• Continuously jump up and down while waiting in a check-out line at a grocery store
After completing my list of social norms, I decided to choose three that truly interested me so I chose to do:
• Stand on your chair in a restaurant and recite the U.S. Pledge of Allegiance.
• Get into an elevator that is crowded with strangers, and after the doors close, introduce yourself to the group.
• Face the back of the elevator while using it As I began to think of how I would execute and conduct these experiments, I realized that I was in the perfect place to perform my first one.
When I entered the elevator that day, I faced the wall in the back and spoke to no one. Although, I couldn’t see I am certain that people that I was crazy. The next day as I ate lunch with a friend, we both stood up in our seats and recited the Pledge of Allegiance, with everyone looking. We were definitely nervous and a tad embarrassed but I was able to see the faces of all the customers and they were unsure of our behavior. Lastly, I was able to perform the last experiment that same day when I went back into an elevator. As I entered, I began to introduce myself to complete strangers and asking them for their name. The first person I asked was a little shaken by my friendliness, but the others were completely fond of my behavior and seemed to enjoy my bright attitude. Before I began my experiments, I became very nervous because I did not know how other people would
react. When I began my experiments, I found them exciting and an easy way to meet new people. After my experiments were done, I was surprised about the results from the last test conducted and not shocked with the second test conducted. Greeting everyone on the elevator was the easiest norm to break because I love to talk and meet people and the hardest norm to break was reciting the pledge while standing in the chair because it was disruptive and brought about a lot of attention and left me wanting to explain what I was doing and why. I learned from this activity that our location in general helps shape how we act. For example, greeting strangers in the elevator wasn’t very weird for me because I was raised to be friendly and speak to everyone and by standing in the chair I was disruptive which goes against my “raising”. Also, I found that it is easier to complete these norms if it does not meet your expectations and predictions because it leaves suspense to each broken norm. The study of social norms can help us understand a wide variety of seemingly puzzling human behavior.