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Social Norm Violations
The Norm Violated: The norm was supposed to be about singing in appropriate places. I choose to sing on a public bus at about the time people were returning home (away from downtown) after work. I thought this might give me a different audience than at other times of the day. It seems reasonable that there is an expectation of the bus being an extension of privacy for some people as they go home, and thus they might not like being bothered as they travel. But as I did my project, I found that the norm wasn't that easy to isolate. There was just as likely an issue about singing badly and singing with and without the help of music technology that made the violation less clear. Was I being "punished" for singing or for singing badly even when I had a player that should have made me sound better?
The Way I Felt: At first I didn't feel much. I think it was because I was wearing earplugs so I could hear the soundtrack. I had a recording of the music without words...
But I didn't get that much of a reaction, which made me feel pretty ignored even for doing something I wasn't supposed to do. So I decided to wait a few blocks and let the crowd turn over. Then I did it without the earplugs so the riders couldn't see my music player. That drew more attention and made me feel that I was doing something bad.
The Reactions: At first, with the earplugs, there didn't seem to be much of a reaction. A couple of people looked at me and one person curled his face, obviously not liking what I was doing. After I put the plugs away, it changed. There were two reactions. In a section of the bus toward the back, people were laughing and pointing, but seemed to be encouraging me and acknowledging that I was being myself. While they might have been making fun of me, I think it was more that they were empowering me to be who I was. Kind of like we encourage karaoke singers when they aren't perfect. But I…
The Social Psychology: Normative values change over time and between social groups and circumstances. But what does it mean when technology gets into the act? Does it throw away the rules or change them? And does it allow for different people (those comfortable with technology) to have different social norms? If so (which I believe) this suggests that something unusual was happening on the bus. It appeared that the existence of the music player was establishing me as belonging in one group or not belonging in another (those going home from work), whose rules I was not following with or without music technology. I believe this evolution has come about because of the widespread existence of Karaoke and the flood of entertainment contests on TV that let people share their styles in very public ways. It may also be that technology and social networking is simply eliminating the idea of there being public social norms of privacy. The founder of Facebook thinks so. Others have a different take. In an older blog discussion from JOI ITO (2003) on "Which comes first, technology or social norms," the bloggers debate one person's point that technology seems to be making social norms fall behind. Others disagree, saying one cannot assume norms fall behind, but they can be baffled by what technology was doing to the norms. I think there is a willingness to allow people to use technology as a cover for what they do, but only in some ways and among some groups.
Johnson, B. (2010). Privacy no longer a social norm, says Facebook founder. The Guardian. As retrieved from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2010/jan/11/facebook-privacy
JOI ITO, Which comes first, technology or social norms. (2003). As retrieved from http://joi.ito.com/weblog/2003/12/30/which-comes-fir.html
Violating Social Norm People like to keep to themselves whenever they can, especially when they are in a situation where they have the option of being to themselves, by themselves. This implicit social norm applies when one goes onto an empty bus. If there are other seats available, one goes to the empty seat; one does not go and sit next to someone who is already there sitting down. It is
Social Psychological Experiment: Violating Social Norms Most Americans place a high priority on their personal space as evidenced by how far people stand apart from each other in virtually any public setting. Indeed, most Americans will unconsciously gauge just how much space is available for their personal space -- even on crowded elevators -- and when this personal space is violated, many people will experience discomfort and even alarm. While the
Deviance In the field of sociology, deviance is defined as the lack of conformity to social norms, which vary from one culture to another. Given the variations in social norms from one culture to another, a deviance act can be committed in one society, but may be considered normal in another. Cultures and subcultures have different social norms even when these cultures exist within a single country. An example of an
Social Norm Experiment: Scenario 6 -- Facing the Wrong Way in an Elevator Solomon Asch's Conformity Experiments during the 1950s demonstrated how much individual opinion and even perception of reality can be influenced by others (Gerrig & Zimbardo 2009, 577-579). In the original series of experiments, Asch tested subjects by presenting with a perceptual question that should have been very easy to identify the correct answer but within a group situation
A busy coffee shop I visit has a self-bussing policy. Most people dutifully clean up after themselves and I do not think I have noticed any time where someone left their dirty dishes behind. For this exercise, i decided to violate the norm by leaving my dirty dishes on the table. Because I did not want to make a bad impression on the staff of a place I enjoy visiting, I
Dining alone is unusual at a higher-end restaurant. Immediately, my jeans, sneakers and faded t-shirt drew whispered comment and stares from some diners. I was afraid I would not be admitted, but I had gone on a night when there were few diners, so I suppose the front-of-house staff though that a filled table was better than an empty table. Again, I ordered a burger, fries, and shake. When the