Following the work of ethnomethodologist Howard Grafinkel, we will be conducting "breaching experiments" where we examine people's reactions to the violation of social norms. Your task will be to 1) go out into the campus or broader community and engage in some form of norm violation activity 2) talk to an record the responses of those individuals observing your behavior and 3) respond to the following questions.
- what norm did you violate?
- how did people in the setting respond?
- how did the norm violation itself and their response make you feel?
- did you feel any desire to "repair" the interaction once you breached the social norm?
- how might a systematic or continued breaching of this norm change our definition of what is "normal"?
Over break I decided to go into a grocery and dance through it instead of walk. I breached the norm of walking through the store and danced instead. I just got stares. I'm sure people thought I was a crazy that escaped. No, I didn't feel the need to repair the breaching of the norm. I was in Idaho where no one knows me. I would feel more obligated if I was home. If everone danced through the store that would become the norm and walking would seem like the weird thing to do.
ReplyDeleteOver break, I decided I would break the norm of having Thanksgiving on Thursday and observe the reactions of friends and various people. As I met with friends and went to various places and I was asked what my plans were for Thrusday I would announce I was not having Thanksgiving on that day this year. A few friends questioned me and then simply invited me to their families celebrations, I declined and felt the need to share that I was actually having Thanksgiving, just on the "wrong" day(My family got together on Friday). The most unique reaction I recieved was on Wednesday evening at Fred Meyer, a store employee told me to have a good Thanksgiving. I said "Thank you, however I am not celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow." The store employee looked at me curiously and walked away. I did not feel the need to fix that interaction due to the fact that the employee did not continue interaction with me. If more people announced that they were having Thanksgiving on a different day then perhaps the definition or tradition of having Thanksgiving on Thursday or even celebrating Thanksgiving at all would become strange. It was interesting to see how everyone expects you to celebrate Thanksgiving. The fact that I was not having Thanksgiving was concerning enough to some of my friends that they felt I should come to their homes to engage in the tradtion.
ReplyDeleteSince I went home for break I decided to go downtown and conduct my experiement in the elevators in the parking structures around pioneer courthouse square. Here I breached the norms of elevator etiquette. A couple of my friends came with me and we tested out different senoritas.
ReplyDeleteThe first one was when the elevator was full, a friend and myself stood at different ends of the elevator and continued to talk over everyone. Our conversations varied but most of the reactions consisted of harsh looks and sighs. some people got off of the next stop to get away from us!
Another scenario was invading peoples personal spaces. This was conducted when the elevator was fairly empty so it was more awkward. Reactions varied as well and consisted of the other person backing away, saying choice words or just leaving.
Some of the situations were awkward for us too, esp the person space norm. I did explain to some people after what we were doing and it made the situation kind of humorous looking back.
There are unspoken rules for elevator use that are usually respected by most people.Being is such a confined space with strangers makes for an awkward situation if something happened. I think that yes this norm could be changed if actions like ours continued, but I think that would be unlikely because it would be unwelcome. People want their own space and respect. I do not see this norm of elevator etiquette changing.
A few of my friends and I over break decided to go through the drive throughs of our favorite fast food restaurants, but instead of “driving through” we reversed though. We drove backwards through our favorite fast food restaurants; Sonic, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s. When we went to order at Sonic, the person taking our order through the machine started cracking up laughing. The guy was about our age and just laughed it off and took our order. The woman at Taco Bell got a little upset and we had to explain that we were doing a project for school about breaking norms. After we explained she just ignored us. At Wendy’s the car behind up in line, in front of us in vision, gave us mixed responses. The mother and driver in the car rolled her eyes and ignored us, but her son pointed and laughed.
ReplyDeleteThe norm violation and the responses we got made me feel like people thought that we were just kids goofy off. The people who laughed didn’t seem to be laughing at us, but more with us. The young people who witnessed our act of deviance gave more positive responses. The people older than us either ignored us or gave negative responses. The only time that I felt the desire to “repair” my actions and would rather be driving in the right direction was when the lady at Taco Bell started to get mad.
If more people started backing up through drive throughs it might change the definition of what is normal. Not just kids trying to make a statement, but if there was a real reason to drive backwards people would get used to the change faster.
For my norm violation I decided to wait 2 hours before replying to text messages on my phone. Normally people/ I respond right away or as soon as you get the message, usually with in five minutes. This is breaking the norm becuase I waited so long to reply and it bothered a lot of people. Some people did not seem to care becuase they may have had other things going on but when people had asked a question or had something important it was very annoying to them especially when I usually respond right away. I know that if I were the one not being responded to back to I would have been upset and annoyed. I did tell some people who were upset over the norm violation that it was for a class project and they felt better. If this norm violation became a norm, it would make me upset and annoyed and it would also make text messaging less important/useful I think.
ReplyDeleteOver break me and my friends celebrated birthdays. So I decied to break the norm of inside voices while singing happy birthday to one of my friends. The place that we went to was a middle class resturant so little kids were not running around screaming and you could hear the kitchen and the music playing. As for when I was singing, everyone kept looking over at our group, since everyone could hear us. Also the people in our group were laughing and the person that was getting sung too was turning beet red. Right as we were just about to leave someone came over to wish my friend a happy birthday. That started a whole wave of laughter all over again. After I was done, I didnt feel the need to fix disrupting their dinner and I felt a little werid but overall thinking it was a memory I would have for to retell.
ReplyDeleteI also did this in a small family setting and when I did this there I was not looked dow upon but many of cousins joined in. And then when I did this in a more family freindly resturant, red robins, the surrounding families may have looked but they did not give me a second thought.
For my norm violation my boyfriend and I sat down with my mom and told her that I was pregnant. Obviously I'm not, but I thought it would be interesting to see my moms reaction. I sat my mom down and told her that I've been feeling sick and I took a pregnancy test and it was positive. My mom absolutely flipped out, she looked like she was going to cry, but at the same time didn't fully believe me. My mom was really upset and worrying about my future and she wasn't being supportive like I expected. After I freaked my mom out I 100 percent felt the need to repair our relationship and explain to her it was all for sociology and I wanted to create a deviant behavior to see her reaction. The reason telling my mom I was pregnant was such a big deal was because as teenagers having a baby is a big deal and is not the norm in America. If it was normal for teenagers to have a family at such young ages then I suspect my mom would have been happy for me, but instead I broke a norm and caused my mom to feel distressed and fearful for me.
ReplyDeleteI chose something pretty simple for my norm violation, but I thought it was interesting none the less. I chose to say "Merry Thanksgiving" to everyone I met instead of saying "Happy Thanksgiving". I said this in response to the "Happy Thanksgiving" I received at department stores, as well as to my relatives over Thanksgiving dinner. At department stores people sometimes looked at me weird and would say "thanks" or "you too", and some were so busy that I don't think they even noticed. My family I think thought I was joking and would say in response "Merry thanksgiving to you too" in a joking manner. Overall most people questioned me saying "don't you mean happy thanksgiving?" I thought it was interesting that simply exchanging "merry" for "happy" caused people to wonder what the heck I was thinking and saying. It seems so custom to use specific phrases including "Happy Thanksgiving" and "Merry Christmas" that when we deviate from these typical phrases in any way, people find it unusual.
ReplyDeleteI didn't feel the need to repair the interaction because I didn't find it particularly embarrassing and it seemed a very minor incident that most people forgot about it after a few minutes. If people continued to use different phrases on holiday such as "Merry Thanksgiving" and "Happy Christmas" I think they would catch on and start to become the "norm". This really made me think about other phrases in our language that are just very custom and we really say without questioning. Often saying "bless you" when someone sneezes, or "excuse me" as you walk by someone our part of our everyday lives.
The social norm I decided to breach was personal space, or norms of proximity. I thought it would be interesting to conduct the violation in the same setting, but A) on different days and B) with people of different familiarity levels.
ReplyDeleteWhile at home I wanted to get some Holiday shopping done so I wouldn't have to stress during Finals week. So I took a trip to Costco with my friend, an ex-boyfriend, Austin. I had not told him about my sociology breaching experiment project, so he was my first subject. The day we went to Costco was towards the beginning of break, so there were people milling about, but no more than average.
At first I created some distance between Austin and I, suggesting we just poke around and meet towards the front of the store in about fifteen minutes. This gave me time to walk around and begin adjusting the personal-space allotment between myself and total strangers.
As expected, the closer I would stand to an individual browsing books, clothes, electronics, etc. the more uncomfortable they seemed to get. The smaller the space left between myself and the stranger, the more likely they were to look up, (glance at me to see if they recognized me), shift their weight away from me, put the object down and walk away, etc. Sex did play a slight role, as women typically displayed less agitation or uncomfortable gestures with the close proximity.
After walking around for just over ten minutes, I met up with Austin near the front of the store and he suggested we poke around the electronic department. I agreed and thought it would be a good opportunity to breach the same proximity norm with him. Again, as expected, familiarity is a large factor in proximity. Because I have known Austin for 16 years, plus we used to date, he showed no signs of uncomfortableness when I stood very close to him, even resting my head on his arm to peek at a camera he was looking at. The same effect and general absence of agitation would probably be observed if I conducted the same experiment on other familiar people.
The third time I violated space norms was on Black Friday, traditionally a day of heavy and hectic shopping, wherein sometimes consumers trample one another for a good deal. I hypothesized that the norms of proximity would be erased, or significantly eased on a day where pushy, aggravated, impolite behavior was expected. Costco was bustling with early morning shoppers, and I am grateful I was in and out to conduct this experiment, not actually to shop. I was right in my hypotheses. Whereas a week before shoppers tensed up, walked away, or displayed unease as I approached closer and closer. On Black Friday, I was bumping into people, reaching over them, standing side to side touching, and there was almost no behavior similar to that experienced a week before.
It's interesting to me that even in exactly the same setting norms can change according to changed expectations.
I didn't really feel the need to repair the action, I predict that if the norm violation were more dramatic, say dancing sporadically or yelling at the top of my lungs in the middle of Costco, I would have felt more of a desire to explain my behavior.
Over break, for my breaching project I thought it would be interesting to go into a grocery store, Albertsons to be exact, and skip down the aisles and grab the items I needed and skip to the next. Although it was harder than I thought skipping everywhere, it definitely stirred up the reactions I was hoping for from the fellow shoppers. In my situation I was bouncing around and bumping into a few carts, making some of the other shoppers kind of angry and or annoyed at me. I noticed a lot of children staring at me and some even trying to mimic what I was doing, but then got scolded by their parents. In one instance when I was stopped to get a candy bar, a teenager about the age of 16 asked me why I was skipping everywhere, and I told him it was for an experiment and so I asked him what he thought about my skipping, and he replied he thought I was mentally handicapped when he first say me. It then occurred to me that challenging sociological norms is so powerful that when someone or something does not fit in, it is almost reprimanded as bad or not fitting in. After talking to the teenager, I realized I didn’t want people thinking I was mentally challenged so it was a challenge making myself finish my experiment and continue skipping through Albertsons. I wanted everyone to know this was just an experiment and I wasn’t doing this out of wanting attention. What I was doing was not “normal”, and the teenager had a great point in that, since I was challenging the norms of a grocery store I was looked upon as having some sort of disability or just wanting attention. Either was I noticed I did not like the feeling of standing out, this experiment proved that although these norms of society are not spelled out for us, everyone falls into a pattern and seems as though we all go along as well.
ReplyDeleteFor this “Breaching Experiment” the norm I decided to violate was drive-through etiquette. Over Thanksgiving break I had my friend drive me to Taco Bell, McDonald’s, and Dutch Bros while they waited for me in the parking lot as I rode a scooter through the drive-through line. I could tell that the people in the cars in front of me at all three of these places were turning around to look at me and a car in Taco Bell’s drive-through behind me even honked at me so I just turned around and waved. This was really embarrassing for me and I could not help but laugh most of the time. Both the people at McDonald’s and Taco Bell asked me why I did not just fold up my scooter and come inside and order. They both did not seem happy about giving me my food so I had t explain to them it was for my sociology experiment and so they kind of understood but were still not happy about it. They seemed grumpy anyways. I found it interesting at Dutch Bros that the guy thought it was really funny and happily gave me my drink. He was really hot and I was really embarrassed so I had to tell him why I was doing this so he didn’t think I was a total loser. What I did by going through a drive-through on a scooter broke a norm because you are supposed to go through a drive-through with a car. The lady at McDonald’s even told me it was a “drive” through and not a “scooter” through. I definitely had the desire to repaid this interaction after I breached the social norm because I was embarrassed after people reacted to what I was doing.
ReplyDeleteFor my breaching experiment, I decided to violate the norm of NOT greeting customers while working at my parent's convenient store over the break. Majority of customers that come in, are regulars, so they are always expecting a "hello" or "Hey, How are you?", from whoever is working. So when I was working and a regular customer walked in, I just gave them a blank store. It felt really weird not to greet the customers because greeting the customers as they walk in is a natural habit now. I don't really take time to think about greeting customers, it just happens automatically. The look look on the customer's face was either an awkward facial expression or had a look of concern on their face. When the customer was ready to check out, about 3/4 of the customers had asked me if there was something wrong because I didn't say hi to them. When I told them what I was up to, they just laughed and said they had figured something was up since it was not normal for them not to be greeted.
ReplyDeleteI went to a coffee shop and sat too close to someone which violated their personal space. It was a pretty empty coffee shop but I choose to sit at the same table as this older gentleman. The man was almost finished with his coffee so he quickly drank the rest then left while looking at me strangely. I felt very awkward violating this man’s personal space and it took quite a bit of self control not to explain to him while I was doing the experiment that it was in fact an experiment. I did want to repair the breach of the social norm but the man left too fast for me to explain myself. If everyone continued breaking this social norm then our perception of personal space would change. People would stand closer to each other and be in other peoples bubble more than what is acceptable now.
ReplyDeleteThe norm I violated was getting too close to someone while engaging in a conversation. I went to a party where I was with a large group of friends that I went to high school with. I was talking to a guy who I had been okay friends with in high school and instead of keeping my "normal distance" from him I was much closer. Not only was he very uncomfortable but people around us were staring and whispering. John (the guy I was talking to) started looking around the room while I was talking to him and started to try to back up little by little. His face got a little bit red and I could tell he was very uncomfortable. The way the norm violation made me feel was very odd and embarassed. I wanted to stop becuase I felt just as uncomfortable and he did. I did want to reverse the change I had made and in the end I did end up telling him it was an experiment because I just felt so odd to leave it at that. I knew if I didn't he and others would think I have become a complete weirdo since high school. He understand and thought it an interesting experiment and we ended up talking about social norms and breaching. It became an interesting conversation!
ReplyDeleteHow can you describe your observations using dramaturgy?
DeleteHow can you describe your observations using dramaturgy?
DeleteFor my norm violation, I tried to convince my cousin that we would not be having the traditional turkey at Thanksgiving. Instead, in the spirit of Thanksgiving and not taking things for granted, we would be having opossum. I had to let my grandmother in on the experiment, since she was the one who would be making the dinner and I needed her to validate my story. My cousin's initial reaction was shock, and then she insisted we were joking. When I stood my ground, she displayed a rainbow of emotions, including disbelief, dismissal, humor, and disgust. She ended the display by simply stating, "We have TURKEY these days." When we finally let her off the hook, I asked her about what she had been thinking. She said at first she was confused, because opossum is just unheard of, then after a minute or so she was 99.9% sure we were pulling her leg. I asked her if it was the fact that it was opossum that she would be expected to eat or that we didn't want turkey for Thanksgiving, and she replied that it was the absurdity of opossum that had her confused. She said that if I had been serious, she would've tried up until Thanksgiving dinner to change our minds.
ReplyDeleteDoing this experiment, I didn't feel the need to repair the norm violation because I was comfortable with my cousin and I actually quite enjoyed confusing her. Had I been doing this experiment with someone I was less comfortable with, however, like relatives I didn't know as well, I would definitely have wanted to clear the air by explaining right away that I wasn't serious. In the highly unlikely event that opossum becomes common at the Thanksgiving dinner table, it might not be considered such a norm violation. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that many cultures enjoy foods that we would consider abnormal. In the case of food, "normal" is determined by what you're used to, so this norm actually wouldn't be that difficult to change if many people started to eat a new food. Thanksgiving dinner, however, would be harder to change because the tradition of turkey has been established for a very long time.
Over the break my roommate (from home) helped me with my breaching experiment. Whenever we went into public places we took things very very seriously. We either tried to go as fast as we could in every situation or treated it like a workout. We would race around not sparing time for any formalities, we were excessively loud and also made lots of unusual noises such as grunts that people generally make when exercising extremely strenuously.
ReplyDeleteMuch to my surprise people generally did not pay us too much heed. Occasionally we would irk someone by racing around or not being polite but generally speaking everybody around us seemed to assume that we had good reason for our actions (except in the instances where we got a little carried away).
We felt no need to repair the norm that we had broken. Often enough we were just accepted because it seemed as if we had an urgent purpose. In summary it seems that breaking the social norm (in the manner we did anyways) is ok as long as there is a seemingly legitimate cause behind the violation. On the other hand college age guys are expected to be doing goofy things and hardcore drugs anyways.
For my breaching the norms experiment, I dressed up really conservatively in a long black dress borrowed from my friends days in high school band (long sleeves, to the ankle, etc) and wore it out when I went out with some friends at night in downtown Portland. We went to Kells and “mingled” with others, along with walking to Voodoo Doughnuts right after the GWAR concert finished at the Roseland, which is a seemingly fairly hardcore heavy metal band, buy the looks of the people in and around Voodoo when we arrived.
ReplyDeleteOverall, just by looks alone I was given really strange looks by everyone, but surprisingly, it was mainly the girls who stared or gave the longest or “dirtiest” looks. Since most people downtown in that area are either homeless, or dressed up to go out (girls usually wearing as little as possible) I was definitely an outsider. One of my friends spoke with one of the onlookers, and the girl was mainly “weirded out” by my clothing choices. A few girls even looked at me, then turned to each other and started whispering and laughing. The guys mostly just ignored me, besides one man’s shout out of his car as he was driving by, which is not an appropriate statement to post.
The norm violation itself seemed almost like a Halloween costume that I wore, but it wasn’t on Halloween. I didn’t mind it so much while alone with my friends as we pretty much made fun of it the whole way downtown, but once I was out with the public, I felt extremely awkward. Because I was not dressed as one should be to go out, I felt everyone was staring, which made me uncomfortable and want to go change, or be in a more private setting. A systematic breaching of this norm might bring about a style change for clothing, but mostly I think it would make dressing conservatively more “ok.” I don’t think continuous wear of the clothing would change the style for everyone, but in general if more people wore this type of clothes on a regular basis, it could make it less of a norm violation and more of a style choice.
For this norm violation assignment I decided while I was at the doctors office I would read a magazine aloud. The people that were in the office responded in many ways, the children were laughing at me along with my mom, their parents were trying to stop them from laughing and stared at me, and the older adults there would both stare and give heavy sighs. I could tell that each individual except for the child were very annoyed and wanted me to be silent. Later one of the people went up to the receptionist and asked if she could tell me to be quiet and read to myself. While I was conducting this norm violation I felt very uncomfortable and I could feel everyone staring at me. I then had told talked to and explained to a couple people what exactly I was doing all this for and they found it to be funny instead of annoying. I think that if enough people violated this norm, of reading out loud, then it would eventually become considered "normal". This however probably will never be accepted.
ReplyDeleteOver break, I rode in a shopping cart pushed by my friend through WalMart. We were grocery shopping, so it was fun. The majority of people I passed just stared. They really didn't know what to do, and I got the feeling they thought I was "weird". A couple people moved their carts CLEAR out of our path. The funniest reaction, was when a man turned to me and asked if I was having fun. Of course I said yes! I didn't have to walk through an entire store, and got a free ride in a shopping cart. I really didn't care what people thought, so there was no need to "repair" the situation. Had I seen people I knew, I probably would have explained the situation to them. I don't think that "normal" would change if people of all ages continued to ride in the basket of carts. I would imagine that after the age of 8 or so, when kids stop riding in carts, the cart would get really heavy and challenging to move around if a child and groceries were in it.
ReplyDeleteThe social norm I decided to violate was the amount of space between people. I basically tested it out with some of my family members. Whenever I would talk to them, I would get really close to them, up to their face almost and just talk to them. At first they would just kind of look away and try to back away also, but because I kept close to them, they would either tell me to kind of get back or they would just walk away. It was very weird for me, as I'm sure it was for them too, they seemed to be very uncomfortable with the whole situation as was I. I did tell them that it was for a project in my sociology class and then they just kind of forgot about it, but I'm sure it was still somewhat ackward. I'm sure that if everyone began getting closer to each other when they were talking, it would eventually become "normal", but because we are all so used to having our space I think it would take a very long time for that to happen. It was weird being so close to people I was related to so I cannot imagine what it would be like to be so close to complete strangers.
ReplyDeletePart 1
ReplyDeleteI decided to ‘breach the norm’ by breaking a cultural taboo with a technological twist. I decided to smoke an electronic-cigarette while attempting to enter a store. Since Electronic-cigarettes are not technically cigarettes, none of the bans or laws technically affects them, and I tried to take advantage of that clause. I went to the shopping plaza near the north of McMinnville to test out what others thought. Immediately walking around I received negative looks from others, obviously those who despised smokers to begin with, however the electronic-cigarette I used blows blue at the tip on the inhale, making it very noticeable. This made me draw slight attention from others, yet no one came up to me and approached me about it. I passed an elder man who was smoking a cigarette and he gave me a slight smile, so I took it as approval. I decided to push my luck and attempt to enter the Ross. Immediately on entering with the E-Cig in my mouth I was asked to put it out from a store clerk, I stopped inhaling so the light faded and I exhaled the water vapor. He told me that cigarettes aren’t allowed to be smoked in stores, and I should know this. I told him that it’s not a cigarette so I should, since it doesn’t have an odor, is smokeless, and exhales water vapor. He then immediately said that “It didn’t matter” and that I would have to leave.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteI felt bullied after that. Considering that according to www.blucigs.com, the company it was purchased from, I could smoke it anywhere. I felt that it was understandable for him to approach a smoker in a store if they had a lit cigarette and tell them to put it out, but I was doing something different. As I said I tried to tell him, but his mind was set, and to him ‘a smoker is a smoker.’ It didn’t matter to me overall, I just feel that trying to explain didn’t matter in that instance. I feel that since Electronic Cigarettes are rather new, that culturally people won’t accept them quickly, despite not being actual cigarettes. The anti-smoker mentality is too high in the United States, and despite being a piece of technology that glows blue at the tip and has shown no negative health side-effects, approval must be gradual and people must become more informed of the matter first. I really don’t smoke so it normally doesn’t matter to me, but I feel that stereotypes and the intolerance it brings are holding back this progression.
I went to Hawaii with my friends over the break; there was over 85F every day, where the vast amount of people worn shorts, flip-flops, or dresses. The morning we arrived at the airport, all of us was wearing winder clothing, such as UGG boots, sweaters, and jackets, in contrast. While we were on the way to our hotel, some people were staring at our clothing and winter accessories; some were whispering to each other; some were even laughing and making fun of us. At that moment, I wished I could run away as quick as I could, and hind myself until I could change my clothing, because it was so embarrassing! Meanwhile, there were four other people who were experiencing the same treatment with me, which made me feel belongingness to a small group and having others to support me. In our society, people are supposed to dress appropriately, depending on individuals’ own acceptable circumstances in their society, like unique religious or cultural habits. In our case, our winter outfits broke the dressing norm in Hawaii; we realized our ‘bizarre’ behavior by looking at others’ unpleasant reactions toward us, as punishment.
ReplyDeleteFor the “breaching experiment,” I decided to dress in completely neon color attire (including shirt, shorts, leggings, headband, and sunglasses) and shop in Wal Mart at 5 am on Black Friday. Because my attire consisted mostly of running wear, I decided that the best way to get my shopping done was to jog and dodge (as best I could with the crowds) in between people. A lot of the shoppers stared and laughed as I jogged by with all of the items in my arms, and some others who were very impatient (and possible overtired) gave me weird stares. I shopped with my aunt and some friends who watched me jog about the store, and I even had one lady come up to me and say, “Well boy, aren’t you dressed for shopping!” The norm that I violated was not only the fact that I was dressed in completely neon colors (including bright yellows, greens, and pinks), but the fact that I choose to jog through the store instead of walk. Like I mentioned earlier, many people just pointed and laughed, or gave me questionable looks. For the most part, I think that many adults thought I was just a teenager “goofing off.” Overall, I enjoyed my time violating norms in Wal-Mart, especially on the biggest shopping holiday of the year of Black Friday. Once I breached the social norm, I felt a little out of place at first, but I began to get used to all of the looks as I continued to shop at Staples, JC Penny’s, and Fred Meyers. Continued breaching of this norm would change our definition of what is “normal” by creating more unique ways of expression. I think that people will become more comfortable (and have become more comfortable) with the way they like to dress or act regardless of others. With this in mind, I think that this opens up the idea of “normalcy” to many different styles, trends and behaviors that people choose to express. The changing society has both influenced many people towards styles and customs, but has also allowed people to step out of the "norm" or extend it, and express their own unique ideals.
ReplyDeleteWow . . . my norm violation is minor and boring compared to everyone else's. Oh well . . .
ReplyDeleteI chose to sit on the desk in my class. Aside from a couple of weird looks when they walked into the room and from their seats, my classmates ignored me for the remainder of the class. I was expecting at least someone to ask me why I was sitting on the desk, but nope. When we had to meet in our groups, my group members acted as if everything was normal. I felt fine and comfortable with sitting on the desk but I was hoping to draw at least one question. Then again, my norm "violation" wasn't much of one. People already sometimes sit on their desks, but not throughout the duration of their class. I think that sitting on desks for a long period of time has a chance of being considered "normal."
Over the break I decided to go to my high school at lunch time and hang out in the cafeteria with the people that I used to go to school with. I violated the norm that once you graduate high school it’s not normal for you to go back and hang out like you use to. People responded in the exact same way I use to respond to ex-students coming back to school. The looks they gave me told me that they didn’t think I should be there, and that it was awkward for me to have come back. Which is exactly how I felt. I felt awkward and out of place like I shouldn’t be hanging out with these people, even though I was friends with most of them. After awhile I felt the need to fix the interaction after I’d breached the norm. I felt I needed to tell people I was doing a school project, because when I was in high school I used to look at ex-graduates the same way. It was always weird seeing them sitting at the lunch tables. I used to think to myself why are they here? Don’t they have anything better to do with their life other than come back to their high school? Once I told people what I was doing and that it was for a school project, I quit receiving awkward looks from everyone and I started to feel like I fit in more. If everyone went back to their high school, it would become less awkward and people wouldn’t think it looked so out of place.
ReplyDeleteFor my norm violation, I decided to walk into a group study room with my shirt off and ask that group to help me with a random problem. The violated the norm of wearing clothing in the library and then talking to people I really didn’t know without a shirt. It didn’t seem weird to me because in Hawaii it is normal for guys to walk around without a t-shirt but here in Oregon and especially in the library it is not acceptable or just thought of as not normal. I received a few minor reactions of laughter and a few strange looks as if they thought I was a weirdo but those were expected. After about a minute I left the room. I later came back to let that group know that it was an assignment for class and I apologized if I made anyone uncomfortable. Everyone was cool about it and they got a good laugh. I didn’t feel uncomfortable in any way and their reactions weren’t anything unexpected so it didn’t bother me at all. I feel as if this violation of not wearing a t-shirt in the library will not be changed into being a norm unless it is way too hot for people to wear t-shirts as it is in Hawaii.
ReplyDeleteDuring the break I decided to to break the language norm. I decided to talk in spanish to everyone and just pretend I did not speak english. Some people would ask me questions and I would just answer their question in spanish. Some people would just look at me and walk away, others would start to get really frustrated and that's when I felt the need to "repair" this interaction and I explained to them it was just an assignment. Some of the people that I explained this to laughed, others just looked at me in frustration and walked away. One person even told me, this is the US you should really learn english but when I explained my assignment to him he just apologized and rapidly walked away. It was interesting to see people's reactions.
ReplyDeleteFor my breeching experiment, I chose to walk into a restaurant wearing a Santa hat, sit down, and sing jingle bells at a noticeably high and off key pitch. I was breaking the social norm of only singing if you are a good singer and keeping your voice at a respectful level while in a public place. Most people just stared at me and waited patiently for me to finish. A few people found it comical and started laughing at the sight of me wearing the Santa hat and singing an awful version of jingle bells. I think most people just thought it was a little too soon to spreading so much Christmas cheer. It definitely made me realize that people don't like to be distracted when they are enjoying a meal. The waitress came over and told me she liked my hat and nothing else, which was a little surprising because I was sure she was going to complement me on my voice but no such luck.
ReplyDeleteFor my breaching experiment, I decided to actually dress with womens clothing during thanksviging dinner with my family. My dad and stepmom knew what I was doing, but the rest of my family didnt. I got a lot of weird looks from my family as soon as they saw me, some of them didnt even hug me like they usually would. Lots of my family members asked what I was doing, and why I was wearing womens clothing. Most of the children made fun of me for wearing the opposite genders clothes, as well as some of the males in my family. The women joked around with me, but ina nice way, they said the clothes I was wearing were nicer than the clothes they had and they wish they had those clothes. Overall, my family took me dressing as a women in a very uncomfortable way.
ReplyDeleteFor my breaching experiment I decided to interrupt my family members when they were talking. The social norm is to wait until the proper time of response is given when in conversation, and instead of following this I decided to speak my mind whenever I felt like it. At the very start of my experiment my parents let my interruption slide and simply ignored it until about a minute in when they got very annoyed and angry. This goes to show that there is not only a norm of conversation protocol being broken while interrupting but also a lack of respect being shown to other people which creates anger from those who you are interrupting.
ReplyDeleteWhile attending an away football game, I sat with a few friends who are students at the opposing school. But just because I was sitting in enemy tertory didn't mean that I wasn't going to cheer on my team, so I cheered and shouted loudly for my team. My friends tried to quiet me so others wouldn't associate them me (their enemy) with them (who supposedly were allies) and I got some glares from students/fans of the home school.
ReplyDeleteOver break, I violated the norm by overdressing for a Christmas party. The party was really casual. Peopl wore jeans and t-shirts or sweaters. I decided to wear one of my really fancy winter formal dresses. When I got there, people kept saying, "Aren't you a little overdressed?", or just not caring at all. Since it was a friends party, she invited her family as well. Her family didn't really know what to say to me at first, but once I told everyone it was for a project, they thought it was funny and then didn't care at all. I actually changed half way through the party because I felt really weird not looking like everyone else. If everyone overdressed, then we would all look the same and it wouldn'r matter.
ReplyDeleteI violated the norm that libraries are suppose to be a designated quiet place and let my 2 year old daughter run free in the Nicholson library.
ReplyDeleteThere were two kinds of reactions I saw among the people in the library. The first one was mostly by the females saying, “she’s cute” or smiling. The other reaction I got was more of a surprised reaction. I let my daughter run quite a ways ahead of me and one guy that was sitting down reading a book took a double glance and said to his friend,” Did I Just see that”? Some people were a bit surprised to see a 2-year-old running through the library at 7 pm but it was very amusing to me and my daughter loved it. A few people seemed pretty frustrated because they came to a quiet place to study and my daughter was very loudly running through the library laughing and saying “mama, mama”. I only stayed for about 15 minutes because I know how frustrating it is to study when there is a toddler running around.
At times I wanted to tell my daughter to quiet down or slow down but I did not want to interrupt the experiment and just let her run wild as if she was at home. I had no desire to repair any interaction once I breached the norm. I thought it was good to interrupt people from their studying for a few minutes. My daughter is a very bright and bubbly little girl so she put a lot of smiles on people’s faces but not everyone’s.
My experiment was being on crutches walking around in public, and then suddenly falling. I waited to see people's reactions. Some people just looked like I was crazy, and others looked and wanted to help, some people actually did help me up. I also experimented without crutches, and just randomly fell in various places. A lot of people just watched and wondered what was going on. I noticed people looking around to see if anyone else saw or to see if it was a test. I think now a days when there is a breeched norm, people are skeptical to believe it or not since its common to see kids acting silly, or doing these types of experiments on people. One thing that has made norms become more common is the show and movie jackass. It seems that when there is a norm broken, people wonder what’s going on but they can accept it and usually conclude its just kids being dumb, or someone who is on drugs.
ReplyDeleteOver break I broke the norm of saying "exuse me" when walking in between people having a conversation and when "accidentally" bumping into people. It is a common norm to utter these words without even thinking about them; it's just the polite thing to do. When I violated this norm, I got a lot of dirty looks in my direction and plenty of "excuse you's" in people's attempt to repair my impoliteness of barging by without saying anything. Although many people got annoyed or even angry, a lot of others were embarrassed or taken aback by my actions and said "excuse me" themselves, even though I was the one who bumped into them. It is so common for us to say this when we come into contact with strangers that we don't really care anymore whose fault it was, so long as the curtesy is made.
ReplyDeleteI didn't actually get a chance to do this experiment, but I wanted to find an elevator and stand facing the back rather than the front. Although I didn't do it personally, I've heard of instances where people would join you in facing the back of the elevator so that when the doors would open they would be facing backwards. I figure this would probably be more successful when going down the elevator where more people will get on after you as opposed to going up where a larger group of people typically get on the elevator at the same time.
ReplyDeleteOver break, I decided to go to the mall and where a face mask. The norm I broke was that no one wheres a face mask through the malls, in other words...our country doesn't seem to take the flu as serious as other countries. For example, in Asia most of everyone where face masks to prevent themselves from getting the flu. It was awkward to walk around the mall as people watched me as well as embarrassed, because im asian and it was obvious that people had their stereotypical views. I didn't have any desire to "repair" the interaction of my experiment, I just thew the mask away and laughed it off with my friends. Its strange how our system works of our "norms" and I would agree with Jessica's theory, when a norm is broken people seem to react surprised and are quick to judge; but at the same time they usually conclude that kids are being dumb.
ReplyDeleteI chose to break a norm that doesnt seem to be such a big deal, but it really got stares when I did it. I would be walking one way and then turn in a complete 180 degree to walk back the oposite way, kind of like when your walking someplace and discover your going the way wrong way. Normally people have to stop and look at their phone or go around a long way so that people don't think they are weird for stoping on a dime and walking back the other way.
ReplyDeleteI did this when I was at the mall shopping with my sister and friend the day after Thanksgiving, so there were more than the normal amount of people around. I would have my sister and friend watch me from afar when I did it and have them tell me the kinds of reactions I recieved.
Just from what I saw the people who were directl behind me and who I almost bumped into looked at me like I was really stupid and like I was weird for just turning around lke that. Some of the people would smile at me and laugh kind of, but this was normally just the younger groups of people. My sister and friend told me that it wasn't just those people who were directly behnd me that noticed nd that people around the area all took notice of what had happened.
I truely felt really dumb for doing this and wanted to tell the people I was sorry and that it was a social experiment but I never did since I realized that I didn't know them and will probably never meet them in my lifetime.
I think that if this happened more often it would still get the same reactions that it gets now. It just feels like when everyone is walking the sameway and everything in the mall is moving the way it is suppose to, it shouldn't be broke the way I had broken it. Everything about the movements of the mall kind of go into a mini frenzy when people just turn around like I had. Overall it was a pretty interesting and extremely embarrassing experiment for myself.
I completed my norm-breaking while being at home for break as well. I was afforded many opportunites to make social situations awkward or abnormal. One of these such occasions was at our annual family party at one of my close friend's house. I chose to participate in the act of "close talking". While making my rounds through the party I would approach someone and engage in conversation....that was very close to the person's face. This clearly violated their personal space as I infiltrated their bubble. I was surprised at the variety of reactions I received. Most commonly, people's body language would change. They would shift their weight, unfold or fold their arms, straighten up and kind of lean away. Others would try and change the conversation maybe hoping to get me to start acting "normal". Some people didn't seem to notice any difference, probably because of the abundance of red wine. The violation and the responses I got actually made me laugh. I think it might have been more awkward if I wouldn't have known the people I were talking to. Because I had an established familiarity with these people I was able to explain my strange behavior. I didn't really feel the need to repair what happened, but I did explain that what I was doing was for my sociology class. If breaching of this norm were to continue then people would be so afraid to talk to each other closely, there wouldn't be such things as personal bubbles and it wouldnt be considered rude to violate these boundaries.
ReplyDeleteDuring my break I went home to Arizona and had a couple friends help me with my breaching experiment. My friend, who I will call "Josh", is an outgoing guy and agreed to be the breacher. So me, him, and our friend Kyle drove two hours to Flagstaff (that's the closest mall). We decided it would be interesting for Josh to wear a woman's mini skirt while in the mall. He's a small built guy so he fit into one of my skirts! Our friend Kyle and I walked in before him and didn't let other people catch on that we knew Josh.
ReplyDeleteWe went into the mall, and sat around the couchs set up next to a fire. We pretended like we were planning out our schedule for the day and watched while Josh entered the mall. Instantly, as he entered the mall, there were various people trying not to stare and trying to hold back laughter. One of the first stores we went into the "Spencers" store. While looking around, I noticed that the cashier, (a male in his 20s) was taken by surprise but didn't do much else. In contrast, the customers were staring almost every chance they got. After a few minutes of browsing, Josh left the store, and I talked to the cashier about the event. I told him about the assignment and ask him what he thought. He said at first it was surprising to see a guy wearing a skirt. "It was a pretty damn short skirt too." He continued to explain that after the initial shock, he didn't mind much because working in a mall, he sees all types of people. After getting his opinions about the matter, I managed to talk to another girl in the store who had been browsing around during the time Josh was in the store. She laughed quite a bit after I explained the assignment to her. Once she caught her breath she said it was awkward to see him in a skirt because it's not very common. She also mentioned that he would probably "get jumped" by some guys if he wasn't careful while walking alone. I asked her what made her come to this conclusion and she said it was because a guy who wears a skirt is not seen as masculine or tough so he would be an easy target for guys to beat up.
These sort of encounters happened throughout the stores in the mall and were almost all similar. First there was shock and then attempts not to stare or laugh. Most of the time people just ignored him. There were a few people who snickered at Josh but most of the time they tried to stay as far away from Josh as they could. While observing the reactions of customers it almost seemed like there was an uncomfortable acceptance of Josh. They didn't like what he was wearing, but they couldn't do much to change the situation so they just accepted it.
I think I was lucky enough to have a friend who would go to such great lengths to help me! I'm also lucky that he's the type of guy who enjoys breaching such norms! Although he didn't mind flaunting his legs in Flagstaff, he didn't want me to post any photos of him in a skirt. He comments "it might deter the Oregon ladies!"
For my norm-breaching experiment I tried to haggle prices at the mall. I would say something like, "These earrings just don't look like they're worth $20. Could I pay $15 for them?" The cashier would ask if there was something wrong with them since often stores give discounts for defective items. I would say no, that they just don't seem worth their whole price. The cashier would then say something along the lines that they are not able to discount the item. Then I would explain that it was just an experiment and I would pay full price.
ReplyDeleteThis was a little awkward and hard to keep a straight face! I feel like a lot of people try to get discounts when there is something wrong with the product, so it wasn't awkward at first. It only became awkward once they realized I just didn't agree with the price. I did repair the interaction because I felt like I should buy the item after I made the cashier go through this. They understood and it was fine since I would end up paying full price.
I feel like this could never become normal. In the mall, it is always expected to pay full price. In other countries and even in big cities in the US with street vendors, it is the norm to haggle. However, in department stores in other countries it is expected everyone will pay full price.
What I did for my breaching activity was me and my sister learned the line dance from the Hannah Montana movie. Then over Thanksgiving break when my family was together we showed them the dance without telling them what was going on. I felt really nervous doing this and all I could do during the activity was laugh at me and my sister. The response from my family was a lot of shocked faces and laughter. They were really confused why we were doing this synchronized dance. After they asked for reasoning and I told them it was for a sociology project. Even though it was just in front of my family I felt the need to explain my ridiculous behavior.
ReplyDeletewhile i was home for thanksgiving break i attempted my norm violation. Every thanksgiving day we go to my step-grandmothers house on my dads side. I have a large family on that side, 35 cousins to be exact. i decided it would be interesting to see how my family would react if i was pregnant. As soon as we got there I told my aunt that i was 2 months along. she was very surprised but attempted to hide her dissapointment. she asked me if i knew what i was doing and if it would be too late to get an abortion. another aunt asked me if i needed money. some of the cousins that were closer to my age told me that i was insane to keep the baby, suggesting i give it up for adoption or ask my parents to take care of it while i finished out college. one of my cousins actually told me that she also wanted a baby, shes only 16. i also told my grandpa that i was expecting. his reaction was quite a shock. he was almost jumping up and down, telling me he couldnt wait for another grandchild. he said he was hoping i would have a girl and name her after my grandmother. at this point i just felt really bad for lying to him and getting his hopes up so this is when i admitted that it was all a lie and an experiment for a sociology experiment. my family was very accepting, saying that they thought it was a great idea. most of them were very thankful that i was not actually pregnant
ReplyDeleteFor my breaching experiment, I decided to reflect on something I've always done - or never done - that is, wearing shoes. If it is warm out, you will rarely see me in shoes, even in the rain. I do not find them necessary, and I have and always will prefer bare feet.
ReplyDeleteOver the years that I have not worn shoes, I've gotten some interesting reactions. People will stare at me, when they first notice me they will glance at my face and then stare at my feet. When entering classrooms, fellow students notice my feet above all else. It's interesting, because if I was wearing shoes, they probably wouldn't be able to tell five minutes after they saw my feet what the shoes looked like. But bare feet sticks in peoples minds. I've gotten comments such as "Nice shoes" and "Aren't you afraid you'll step on something?" People around my high school eventually got used to me not wearing shoes, and I think Linfield has also. It's interesting walking around the streets of a town without shoes, though. People look at you in the same way they look at homeless people, even though you can tell by my dress that I'm not (usually :).
The only form of discrimination I've ever received was when I ate at Dillin my freshman year. Bill and Jason would yell at me and kick me out every time. I eventually learned, but it took a while.
I have no desire to wear shoes when it's nice, so I guess I have no desire of fixing the interaction. Shoes, in my view, are not necessary, so why should I wear them?
For my experiment I decided to invade people's personal space simply talking really close to their face and standing close to their hip. I felt that didn't really have an effect so I added using an outside voice when I was inside and an inside voice when I was outside or in a loud environment. Most people acted really uncomfortable and looked at their friends trying to give them a look of, “this girl is weird, why is she doing this” while backing off. My results wasn’t anything surprising but it’s funny to me to see that when people have their friends around, they quickly look at their friends to get a respond to agree that I was being weird, where as if they were by themselves, they would not make a weird face and sort of play it off a little nicer.
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