Project - Admission/Application Essay Example

Breaking social norm experiment There are certain rules set by the society about how people should behave. However, these rules unwritten, they are important in showing how we relate to each other in the society (Durlauf and Blume 112). There are several instances when I come encounter people breaking or feeling weird when some is breaking these social norms. There are things that the society considers wrong, for instance, wearing clothes backwards. Ideally, this is not wrong, but it would feel so abnormal to wear clothes backwards. This is what social norms are all about. I am motivated to try to understand exactly the concept of social norms in the society. I want to prove if it is true that people value these social norms. To prove my point and get my findings, I faced backwards in an elevator. I learned that facing backwards in an elevator is a social norm when one day I rode the elevator with a person carrying a backpack and facing backwards. I felt that he looked weird by facing backwards. Every other person in the elevator looked at him suspiciously wondering if he was normal. I then realized that there are certain unwritten societal rules about how people should behave. I noticed that the society expects us to behave in certain ways that are seen as normal. Therefore, I decided to break a social norm by facing backwards in an elevator and see peoples reactions. The social norm experiment was to help understand if people cared on not about social norms. The society can judge a person negatively if the person does not behave in a "normal" manner.
By facing backwards in the elevator, I realized that I was violating a social norm. The reactions I got taught me a lot about social norms and breaking them. I got various reactions from other people. I think some people in the elevator were very angry with me. Some people looked at me as if I normal while others even laughed at me. There was an interesting observation from an old man just next to me. The old man looked at for a long time and asked me, "Are you okay son?" It was clear to me that these people felt I was breaking the law. They felt bad about what I was doing and judged me negatively. Standing facing backwards in the elevator changed how people felt. I would tell from the look in their eyes that some people felt uncomfortable because my actions were contrary to what is considered “normal”. When the old man asked me if I was okay, I felt satisfied because I was beginning to understand the importance of social norms in the society. I felt discriminated from people in the elevator because they all felt that I was not normal. The experiment taught me more about social norms and society. I got firsthand information and experience on how social norms work and what they mean to people’s lives. I felt how people feel when the society negatively judges them from breaking social norms. I learned people’s reactions to people who do not follow social norms. By standing backwards in the elevator, I broke the social norm, which is to stand facing the door. Therefore, I was the odd one out in the elevator. I enjoyed this experience and the experiment as a whole.
Work Cited
Durlauf, Steven and Lawrence Blume. New Pagrave Dictionary of Economics, second edition. London: Macmillan, 2008. Read More