Violating Social Norm Analysis

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Pages: 5

Violating social norms wasn't the easiest thing to do. It definitely pushed me to step out of my comfort zone to be able to follow through both of the tasks that I set my self to do. I greeted and shook hands with people as they walked into the mall. I also attempted to bargain with the cashiers in a few stores that I went shopping to. In the book "Sociology A Down To Earth Approach" by James M. Henslin, he states, "Whether you consider the breaking of a norm an amusing matter that warrants no sanction or a serious infraction that does, however, depends on your perspective" (2012, p. 158). Not only was this experiment nerve-racking, it was scary, funny, and very awkward too. Some people were easy to get along with, while others were not too friendly. There were a few times where I questioned whether I was stepping boundaries with others. …show more content…
I already had an idea of what two norms I wanted to violate. I thought the mall was the perfect environment, since there's always people walking in and out of stores. Arriving there I walked through the doors of Macy's and as I stood there waiting for people to walk through I could not have been more nervous. My mouth was really dry, my palms were quite sweaty, and I could hear my heart pounding. The first two people that walked in were very friendly the said good morning and shook my hand. After they left I thought I would be fine. After several people had passed and all very friendly, there was a man that passed avoiding eye contact and sped walked right past me and left me with my hand out ready to shake his. It was embarrassing, and made me feel bad because I knew he saw me reaching my hand out as I was saying good morning. He wasn't the only one that did that to me, a few others rejected my hand shake and didn't reply to my good