Examples Of Violating Social Norms

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Violating a Social Norm. I violated a social norm by refusing to “mirror” the nonverbal display of one of my best friends. Her name is Hailyn and we have been best friends since middle school. Because we go to the same church, I met her on Sunday and she told me that she needed to talk to me. She explained to me that she was asked out by a man that she has been dating for two weeks now. I already knew that she was dating this person and that she was interested in him. Yet, she was never in a committed relationship so she told me that she wants to go out on a few more dates with the person before deciding to actually go out with him. To violate the social norm, I responded to her without empathizing. I tried my best not to create any chameleon effect of any unconscious nodding or gasp. My responses were very simple and straight forward. When she told me that the man that she’s been dating, I literally told her, “good for you,” without any facial expressions. She seemed to be a bit disappointed by my reaction but she still went on and told me that she wants to date …show more content…

Not just because I was violating a norm but because I was not interacting with my best friend’s emotion for something that she was worrisome about. If I had to refuse to “mirror” the nonverbal display to strangers or people that are not really close to me, I think I could have made a more extreme case with the study. Yet, I realized violating social norms can possibly lead me to lose the people I am violating the social norms with. Moreover, I felt like the result of refusing to “mirror” the image might depend on the closeness of the relationship between two. I think if the person who is being ignored of their emotions is close to the person who is refusing to mirror, that person would more likely make external attribution. On the other hand, if the person being ignored is not close to the other person, that person is more likely to make internal

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