Breaching Experiment: Wrapping Legs in Garbage Bags

Introduction: The Man in the Plastic Bag

An article published in the Huffington Post (UK) described an Orthodox Jewish man from a religious sect who boarded a plane wrapped entirely in a plastic bag, knotted at the top of his head in a triple knot. Media outlets speculated that his reason for encasing himself was to protect against female passengers. The actual reason, however, was quite different: the flight path would take him above cemeteries, and he did not want the impure spirits of those cemeteries to contaminate him. He therefore enclosed himself inside a physical barrier.

This story inspired me to design my own breaching experiment — though in a decidedly less dramatic fashion.

Conducting the Breaching Experiment

On the day of the experiment there was a flood. Heavy rain had left the street submerged in roughly three feet of water. I wrapped my feet and legs in two-ply black garbage bags, walked down the stairs, stepped outside into the flooded street, and entered my car still wrapped in the bags. Once inside the vehicle, I removed them and stowed them away.

Social Reactions and the Role of Context

I noticed people looking, but the spectators — mainly children — were already absorbed by the extraordinary scene outside: the lake that had formed on the street, the debris washing across their lawns, and a propeller boat being operated by an adult on the water. In that context, my garbage-bag-wrapped legs appeared almost unremarkable. One child pointed; two others glanced over, but their attention was quickly drawn back to the other unusual occurrences surrounding them.

The man on the plane, by contrast, appeared in a setting where ritual, mannerism, dress, and conduct all conformed to established norms. His appearance was, literally, abnormal — against the norms — precisely because everyone around him was dressed differently and the social environment was stable and consistent. Had more people dressed similarly, he might have attracted far less attention. The burka, for instance, is a comparably distinctive form of dress that draws relatively little attention today in many contexts. It was the mismatch between his appearance and the surrounding social context that generated the degree of attention and ridicule he received.

I do not think that the gender of the person performing the norm violation was the decisive factor in either case. Violations of social rules attract attention regardless of the sex of the person involved.

Conclusion: The Value of Disturbing Social Conventions

As Garfinkel proposed, it is sometimes useful — even necessary — to disturb social conventions. A historical example is the civil rights movement of the 1950s in the American South, when the enforced separation of Black and white Americans in seating, busing, and dining was deliberately and publicly challenged. Such disruptions are socially uncomfortable, but questioning entrenched social conventions can lead to meaningful and positive change. The breaching experiment, however small in scale, offers a window into the powerful and often invisible force that social norms exert over everyday behavior.

References

Milgram, S., & Sabini, J. (1978). On maintaining social norms: A field experiment in the subway. In A. Baum, J. E. Singer, & S. Valins (Eds.), Advances in environmental psychology: Vol. 1. The urban environment (pp. 31–40). Erlbaum Associates.

Rafalovich, A. (2006). Making sociology relevant: The assignment and application of breaching experiments. Teaching Sociology, 34, 156–163.