Elevator Observation Essay

What is your reaction when people stare or look at you in elevator? People normally avoid facing others when they are in elevator, and it has been a norm that most people follow. The reason of doing this project is to see people’s reaction when others are breaking the norm of riding elevator. By doing this project we developed three steps of observations in elevator, which were examining people who follow the norm without violation, being an observer and a violator to watch the rider’s reaction when the norm is violated. Also, we would discuss about two main parts of the norm violation such as the process during the violation and the personal difficulties of breaking the norm.

In the first step, my partner and I started observing the people whether they tail with the norm or not. The first person we witnessed was an Asian male. This man had a quick eye contact with me before he stepped into the elevator, and then he stared at the floor the whole time until he left. The second time we observed was an American male with his dog. The American started the conservation by the time when we had eye contact in elevator, but as soon as the conversation was over, he began staring at the door. In this experiment with my partner, we had observed four different types of people based on sex and race. According to our observation, even though the people are from different countries or in different sex, they still follow the norm, but in a different way. The Asian male and female tend to not facing other riders when they are in elevator; however, the American male and female are more likely to greet others with a smile, and then they would face the door. In comparison, I would define this result as a culture differences. More specifically, Asian...

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...ng on the strangers I see on the street. I often doubt my reflex action when I face others, so when I saw the example of this

Tsai 4 project, my first thought was it would be interesting and new for me to select the norm of elevator. Also, this elevator norm project can be easily do in any situations as long as there are people ride elevator.

If I had selected a different norm, I might not have the difficulties of observing the riders in elevator. On the other hand, I wouldn’t have chance to experience the norm of facing others that I don’t know. This project is not only solving my question in mind of the norm, but also I realize there are many norms that people or I follow and we don’t know about it. Moreover, this project has changed the way I look things around me, and now I see things whether they are big or small; I see them with a deeper and clear perspective.