Breaking Norms: A Personal Experiment

A norm is a widely shared view of what is acceptable or unacceptable in a cultural setting. Each norm comes with it’s own sanctions, positive or negative The norm I chose to break was to ask permission to do anything before I do it. I chose this due to the fact that I believed it was interesting and a complete difference from my headstrong personality. This is an informal norm, as there is no written rule saying I must ask permission for anything, even though it is the polite to do so. Saturday, the fourth is when I broke the norm at my boyfriend's house; I also planned on only breaking this norm at his house and only in the company of him, he had no idea that I was to break the norm. I was, and still, not comfortable enough with his family to pull

My boyfriend was irritated about an hour and a half into the experiment, causing it to end about four and a half hours early. He’s only in town on the weekends so I didn’t want this to put a damper on our moods for the rest of the weekend. I decided that I was participating in the experiment for six hours, starting when I awoke, which was around noon. At first he was fine with the questions; the first question wasn’t terribly out of place, it was something about using more of the blanket, he’s a bit of a blanket hog. However, as the day went on, and I started asking more personal questions such as, “can I use to the restroom?” or “can I brush my teeth?”, he began getting frustrated. I felt embarrassed that I needed to ask permission to take a shower; on top of that, I was upset for I knew I was upsetting him, consequently that’s why I ended the experiment earlier than planned. About half way through the experiment he went upstairs and told his family about what I was doing, which only caused more embarrassment, especially when his family teased about it later that evening. It was not anything serious, just some light hearted banter; however, I have never felt more