Violating Social Norms

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Social norms are the rules of behaviors that most people consider to be normal and acceptable within societies (Reynolds, Subašić, & Tindall, 2015). They guide social behaviors to be performed similarly (Reynolds et al., 2015). When a behavior is accepted and is behaved by many people, a person can think it is a correct way to act and he will be more likely to mimic that behavior. Besides, without following social norms, the fear of abnormality in groups can prevent a person from acting differently. A person might be afraid that his unlike behaviors could be seen as weird, impolite or guilty behaviors. Moreover, social norms are frequent behaviors which have been developed for a long time and passed out through generations as well as cultures. …show more content…

Therefore, in general, it may cause isolation from the groups (Stamkou, van Kleef, Homan, & Galinsky, 2016). Some examples of violating social norms that I have personally witnessed are: cutting in line when other people were standing and waiting in the restroom, talking out loud in the library, and bringing a big meal and eating during a lecture. The specific social norm that I will focus in this paper is public behavior. Public behaviors are every behavior that can be took place, seen or heard in public places, without offence or annoyance. I think it got into existence when people consider those behaviors are fine when behave in front of others, when people observe and copy other people, or pass through folkways or generations. To violate the public behavior, I stared at stranger persons. When I took the shuttles, I began to stare at a random person. When he/she noticed that I was looking at him/her, he/she made an eye contact with me. I kept staring at him/her until he/she got off at the next bus tops. When I did it, I felt uncomfortable and ashamed. I was sure that I looked like a weird and creepy girl. Respondents were all strangers. Most of them stared back at me for a short time, then looked at the different places, then looked back at me, did it several times, and finally gave up looking at me. The others started to do something else in order not to pay attention to my odd stare,

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