When going to Wal-Mart, the average shopper has only one intention: going in and coming out as soon as possible. They may stop and chat with a friend they see, but they never do anything out of the ordinary. Throughout the roaming shoppers, I, equipped with a net, bug kit, and safari outfit, set out on the dangerous task of breaking that social norm. The norm I broke with my social experiment was the unspoken social rule that says you are not to draw attention to yourself in a negative way, especially in public. This includes, but is not limited to, actions and dress. As a way to break this social norm, I dressed in a stereotypical “safari” outfit. The outfit consisted of a khaki hat, button down shirt, shorts, and rain boots. Rain boots are not usually a part of safari attire, but they added a nice touch. My props consisted of a butterfly net, and a bug kit equipped with magnifying glass and tweezers, both purchased at the dollar store. Before beginning my social breach experiment, I was extremely nervous. I even put off doing the experiment for a few days because I was too terrified of stepping out of my comfort zone. When I finally did muster up the courage to go into Wal-Mart, I ended up wandering around the empty garden center to calm my nerves. At last, my nerves were settled enough to go into the actual store. The first area of Wal-Mart I went to was the toy section, which was filled with kids and their parents. I found an empty aisle and began analyzing a speck of dirt on the ground with the magnifying glass that came with my bug kit. A few seconds later, two women turned down the aisle, stopped, and stared in confusion. I, acting flustered, jumped up and began chasing an imaginary bug down the aisle w... ... middle of paper ... ...ise, such as clothing or hardware stores. That way I could observe whether the location influenced the sanctions I received. I would also probably shorten the time spent at the store, so that customers would not become accustomed to me, as they began to do during my experiment. This experiment was rewarding in many ways. Even though I was nervous every second of the thirty minutes I was at Wal-Mart, I was forced to step outside of my comfort zone. That alone is a rewarding experience, but seeing the reactions of others made the experiment even more rewarding. I was also able to see how people react in certain situations and was forced to evaluate how I would react if I were observing myself through their eyes. Overall, this social breach did what it was supposed to do— break a norm of society and make shopping a bit more interesting for those who observed.
This conclusion was disproved from Milgram’s experiment. The majority of the subjects obeyed the experimenter to the end. There were several reactions to the experiment. Some people showed signs of tension or stress, others laughed, and some showed no signs of discomfort throughout the experiment. Subjects often felt satisfaction by obeying the experimenter.
In her excerpt, Baumrind discusses the potential dangers of the aftereffects on the participants of the experiment. On many occasions she suggests that these people are subjects of a cruel and unethical experiment, and suffer from harm to their self-image and emotional disruption (227). She also calls Milgram’s experiment a “game” (Baumrind 225); this illustrates her negative outtake on the experiment which is seen throughout the article. On the contrary, Parker discusses the aftereffects on Milgram himself. He expresses how the experiment, although it shows light to what extent of obedience a person may travel, ruined Milgram’s reputation. Parker also cites many notable authors and psychologists and their reactions to Milgram’s experiment. Despite their differences, Baumrind and Parker are able to find common ground on a few issues concerning the Milgr...
...e maximum shock level dropped significantly. The more official the experimenter looked, the more people would reach the maximum shock level. Stanley Milgram’s findings were groundbreaking. He found that humans will comply and obey ones orders than previously thought. His experiment has become one of the more well known and influential social psychology experiments completed.
Societal norms are ultimately the sociological expectations for our society. So, when people see somebody standing in the middle of a crowded public place doing nothing, they are going to take notice. I realized that while standing in the middle of the mall where many people
According to Silvia Bellezza, a doctoral candidate in marketing at Harvard Business School in Boston, “Nonconformity leads to positive inferences of status and competence when it is associated with deliberateness and intentionality..” Intentional deviance from a norm can project heightened status and competence by signaling that one has the autonomy to act according to one’s own inclinations (Silvia Bellezza). For example, in one study she found that participants perceived an individual deliberately wearing a red bow tie at a black-tie party in a country club as a higher-status member of the club and a better golf player than a conforming individual wearing a black bow tie. This enhances one's sense of freedom which allows a person to have their own identity in the crowd. Amanda Chatel, a writer for Bustle, claims that “Being your darling and the bizarre self who does their own thing is the best thing you can be... in life… the dating world, online or otherwise.” Being yourself can increase one's charm. As stated in the second paragraph, “those who march to the beat of their own drummer,” or follow their own constitution are, “far more attractive than those who are just like...everyone else.” Although some conformists accept who they are, your true identity can encourage positivity within yourself. For instance, this can be beneficial for one's self-esteem and confidence, constructing that
The reactions of people when you break a social norm can vary quite drastically. Sometimes the reactions are quite large and other times they are rather subtle. The reactions typically vary based on what norm you break and how strong of a norm it is. In the case of invading people’s personal space, I did not receive and intense reactions. All of the reactions I received were subtle. Not ma...
The experiment I have chosen to break a folkway was to walk around either a store or the mall with all my clothing backwards. This was to test and see the reaction of people since it is not normal for a person to be walking around with their clothing backwards. Of course, the first thing I did was make my own inference on how people would view me as I did the experiment. I predicted that people will looks at me very strangely and would at least laugh. The most I want to see from a person is just their facial reaction plus a few comments.
The Asch and Milgram’s experiment were not unethical in their methods of not informing the participant of the details surrounding the experiment and the unwarranted stress; their experiment portrayed the circumstances of real life situation surrounding the issues of obedience to authority and social influence. In life, we are not given the courtesy of knowledge when we are being manipulated or influenced to act or think a certain way, let us be honest here because if we did know people were watching and judging us most of us would do exactly as society sees moral, while that may sound good in ensuring that we always do the right thing that would not be true to the ways of our reality. Therefore, by not telling the participants the detail of the experiment and inflicting unwarranted stress Asch and Milgram’s were
The objective of my experiment was to observe how people reacted to a violation in the social norms of elevator etiquette. Generally in elevators, people fill in starting from the back, face the elevator doors, and rarely make verbal contact with others. Unless the passengers of the elevator know each other, conversation is sparse and often limited to small-talk. As a result of this, my goal in the experiment was to introduce a foreign behavior to the elevator, something that nobody would expect while going about their day. Thus, I entered a situation where a certain set of expectations was in place, such as the informal rule that individuals should stand (rather than sit) in an elevator, and violated those unspoken rules without acting in
... you see someone. But having a few laughs about what you just did because you looked ridiculous doing it, is all apart of life! I live by the motto that life is suppose to be fun. It shouldn’t be all serious and work. You need to have a little time for adventure as well. Some things can be a little strange, such as eating with your hands, but hopefully that person you are with has a good attitude about it and will just go along with it all. Social norms can be a good and bad thing. They are good, because the keep everything in line and makes sure that humans are acting accordingly in their daily activities. But they also can be bad because it puts pressure on everyone's perception of what freedom is and what is acceptable or not. Social norms will always have a controlling impact on the behavior of individuals, occasionally developing them into a new form of person.
For my breaching experiment, I decided to break the social norm of looking at someone while engaged in conversation with them. Today, it is socially unacceptable and impolite to avoid looking at someone when talking to them. The background assumption for a typical conversation is that direct eye contact will be made more often than not; otherwise social norms are being violated. Avoiding eye contact during an exchange tends to dehumanize the person that is not receiving the eye contact. It is impolite and offensive, not looking at someone who is talking makes it seem as though the topic being discussed is unimportant. For my research experiment I would constantly talk to someone without initiating eye contact, or with my back facing toward the subject, not turning around or making eye contact until I had to ring up their order or make the drink for them. This research is important because it uncovers what happens when the social norm of
This mini-ethnography has taught me to look at people in a completely different way. It has opened my mind to a whole new view of how people interact and carry on their daily lives. I have found that the people of Wal-Mart can vary greatly although everyone is there for the same reason. Wal-Mart has become a place that supports many people no matter what race, size, or gender.
Breaking those norms made me feel extremely out of place and rude. They made me feel that way because I knew what I was doing wasn't socially right and people would get mad or be rude to me with their reactions. For the most part throughout my experiment, most people reacted the way I thought they would. You could tell that most people felt awkward or uncomfortable while breaking the norm. I faced a couple of difficulties during my assignment when it came to violating the social norms.
... day. The hardest part of the experiment was going against social psychology; it was very uncomfortable going against the social norms. We also found that it was difficult to match all of our schedules to be able to do the experiment all together when the gym was full. Overall the experiment taught us that social norms have molded society to believe that they should restrain their original thoughts and actions when in a public place. Lastly, individuals should not disturb other social norms that occur within the range of accepted actions, especially in the area of clothing.
As technology get more advance, people use cameras, tracking devices in the stores to track customers shopping behavior. The retailers apply every detail that they get from anthropologists to get people buy their products. Some people claim that the surveillance of consumers by retail anthropologists is manipulative and unethical. However, the claim is not entirely true. Many retail use the data they get from anthropologists and apply it to their store to create great experiences for their customers, encourage customers to revisited, and ultimately improve business performances.