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Social Norm In Society And Social Aspects Of Society

Decent Essays

A norm is a behavior or unspoken rule that society has deemed as normal or acceptable. Those who do not follow the norms of a group may be shunned or looked at as different. The norm I will be violating for my project is asking people that I am unfamiliar with to do something simple for me. It is not common for a stranger to ask another stranger to do something that they are seemingly able to do. This norm acts as a mechanism of social control by keeping people from talking to those who are unfamiliar. It also puts forward the idea that we should be able to do all simple tasks ourselves. To break this norm, I am going to wear tennis shoes with one of the laces untied and ask strangers passing by to tie my shoe for me.
The range of possible reactions for this norm might be people who are willing to help a stranger tie their shoe, people who ignore the question and keep walking, some might be hesitant and question why, and people might say no straight away. I predict the major reaction to be people questioning why can I not do it myself, and then they keep walking. I do not think the majority of people will be willing to tie a stranger's shoe, especially since I look like I can easily do it myself. I think reactions would be different if I had my hands full of something, like books.
The norm violation took place on the sidewalks of campus. I figured it would be more natural to just walk up to someone that was already coming towards me. I made sure my shoe was already untied,

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