Examples Of Violating Social Norms

Norms are found everywhere in our society, whether we acknowledge them or not. In sociology, norms are defined as social expectations that guide behavior. For example, in the classroom, students are expected to sit at their desk and participate in a class discussion or pay attention to the lesson at hand. Norms explain why people do certain actions in given situations. Violating a social norm is considered deviant or in other words, rude or unusual. For this assignment, I chose to violate my friends' and various strangers’ personal space. Personal space is deeply valued and considered the area around yourself or others that is preferred not to be occupied by another person. When someone is facing us, they must be a certain distance away or we begin to feel uncomfortable. At the same time, if they stand too far away we also feel uncomfortable and begin to wonder what is wrong with us. Since I’m considered new to our friend group, I felt this would be a nice way to see how they react to someone they barely know or are getting to know, violate their personal space.
This young man was seated in front of me, so I proceeded to place my boot in between the seat he was in and the seat next to him, directly near his arm. The first then he did was glanced to his side and lean forward. So, I started moving my foot from side to side to see if I could receive a stronger reaction. He then placed his arm on the arm rest where my boot was, gently hitting it back. It wasn’t long until he moved over a seat, which was a little unexcepted. I honestly thought he was going to ask me to move my foot or adjust himself in a different