Breaking Social Norms

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In today’s society, social norms are one of the biggest reasons why people act the way they do. People are raised into these social norms and taught to conform to them. They have also been taught the consequences of not conforming. Social norms are a set of rules created by society that teach people the “ideal” way to live, act, think, and/or do something. Conformity is the compliance of these social norms. For example, wearing pink is considered to be “feminine”; which something a man shouldn’t be. If a man were to wear a pink shirt, they would be breaking this “norm”, therefore not conforming to it. There are three types of social norms, laws, folkways, and mores. A law is a norm that is written and has been stated by the government, in which breaking it will cause legal consequences such as arrest, time in prison, etc… Folkways, also known as “customs”, consist of cultural behavior, food habits, clothing, music, etc… For example, if someone wore adidas shoes with nike pants, it would be considered breaking a folkway norm. Breaking a folkway norm has no legal consequences, but may change the way people interact with that person. Unlike folkways, mores are strict norms that have been established for a long time. Something …show more content…

The conductor greeted the subject while he ate a slice of pizza while he sat on the grass. As the conductor explained how he couldn’t get any girls numbers that day, he snatched the pizza off of the subject’s lap. Then proceeded to take a bite out of it. As soon as the subject noticed what had happened, he forcefully asked the conductor what he was doing. Soon after, he sprawled up and punched the conductor in the face. Based on social norms, it must have been a very strict norm to him to not mess with anyone’s food. He acted in such a violent way because the act that had been done was very rude and disrespectful in his

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