social norms

Social norms are the invisible laws of society and are often referred to as the basic and unofficial rules of the economy. Whether it includes -- avoiding burping or farting in public, closing your mouth as you chew, not kissing in front of your parents, smiling while being introduced to somebody you don’t know, or even holding the door open for the oncoming people entering the same place as you. Social norms deliver stability into society. It is almost impossible to imagine how human society could function without social norms. People need these norms to serve as guidelines to follow and use as a way to direct their behavior, and also to understand others behavior. In this project I chose to keep it simple and break an elevator norm. What would you do if a person stared directly at you while an elevator? Staring somebody down is often thought of as rude and disrespectful, which is why I chose to break this particular social norm.
In regards to breaking this particular social norm, my partner and I would enter an elevator and elevator surf until the elevator would stop to pick up people. As each person would enter the elevator, I would obviously and obnoxiously stare him or her down while they entered and rode the elevator. We traveled to Wentz to use their elevator because we felt like it is one of the most diverse buildings on campus.
In the first stage of breaking the norm, we would take notice if the people boarding the elevator would follow the social norm or not. Which is to enter the elevator and mind your own business and usually stay quiet. The first encounter we faced was a foreign student from London. As the elevator opened to allow him in, he nervously made quick eye contact with me that was instantly followed by hi...

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...et others with a smile or a nod, and then they would face the door. In comparison, I would suggest that these results are in fact due to culture differences. More precisely, foreigners did not want to look at others intentionally in the elevator out of respect for not only their personal space but my own, and Americans seemed to want to greet first to completely eradicate the awkward circumstances when people make accidental eye contact, though they still avoid face to face confrontation afterward.
Performing this experiment and breaking the given social norm made me realize how much people value their personal space. Me included. It was as hard for me to keep staring people down as it was for them to allow me to keep doing it. Violating someone’s personal space is a common disruption we all have experienced before, because of the distinct boundaries in each person.