Norm Violation

The norm I choose to violate in my norm violation assignment is eating with my mouth wide open and producing sounds as I chew. Eating with your mouth open and producing sound is considered deviant behavior I decided to break this norm in one of the restaurants in Minnesota. After the church service, I went to the restaurant with some of my friends from the church youth group for a meal ensuring that I did not inform them of my assignment. Ensuring that I was the only person knowing about the assignment was the best way to receive the most genuine reaction from my friends.

The moment I arrived the restaurant I immediately notice a number of social norms being followed by every customer at the restaurant. They were all well groomed, eating appropriately. Everyone eating at the restaurant had a napkin on their lap and ate using silverware. The moment we walked the restaurant we had already broken some minor folkways since we were all dressed like college students. The impression this created was that we were struggling with our finances as well as lacking the dressing below their standards.

I ordered rice and an entrée which would normally require less opening of the mouth as well as sticky once chewed. The reason was to guarantee that I was blatantly violating the social norm. Once I received my rice, I started eating with my mouth wide open loud sounds, the juices streaming on the sides of the mouth. I instantly drew quizzical glanced in all quarters of the restaurant, with the reaction from my friends being even harsher. My friends gave me some harsh words due to embarrassing them in such as respectable public establishment and advising me to act like an individual of my age should. The quizzical looks that other diners previously had had now been transformed into scornful. My friends other than offering the harsh words had taken my plate always as they could not risk allowing me to embarrass them more. By this moment, our table had taken all the attention at the restaurant with me being the center of interest for both the customers as well as the staff. The criticism was not from my peers but from other people dining around our table. The moment I started eating again with my mouth open, the management approached me and asked me to leave if I could not eat with my mouth closed.

Before out the experiment, I felt anxiety crippling me since I knew the reaction would be bad, how bad was what I was waiting to see. The emotional distress that I had was enormous knowing that sanctions would definitely accompany my behavior. None the less, I was excited to undertake the assignment as well as the look on the faces of my peers who are scorning me once I tell them that it was an assignment.

I was totally uncomfortable over the cause of the experiment due to the sanctions that I was receiving. I was facing a lot of emotional trauma from some of the social sanction that resulted from the experiment. The sanctions were of a wide range, from being looked at scornfully by the customers and peers to the management of asking me to leave, publicly. Being told to act my age by the peers was very disheartening as I had for a moment thought they may be more accommodative.

After the experiment, I had the feeling of relief that all that over that the duration of being labeled a deviant was finally over. Other than my friends, no one else knew about the experiment thus my attempts to explain that it was an experiment to the management fell on deaf ears. The fact that I did not carry any documentation made it harder for me since I could not back up my claims. The reaction was the same on the side of the customers; the only thing that was relevant to them was the fact that I had broken social norms. There was no way I was going to make sense to the management and change their impression no matter how hard I tried. Regardless of how apologetic I was, I still could not get rid of the awkward feeling that everyone one at the restaurant had cast on me. I believe the context of my actions made the reaction from the others made sense.

Conclusions

From the experiment and how I personally felt, it was clear that what keeps people from violating the social normally is the risk of being scolded by the community. Being casted out by the community, as well as the peers, is the principal reason as to why people follow the social norms. On an individual capacity, I realized that I have to conform to what the society subscribes as the acceptable mode of conduct. The fear of being labeled I realized is what makes me be doing most of the right things I do since failing to do them will lead to me being humiliated and scorned. The experiment made me realize that the extent of reactions from the different sides that do not like your conduct comes in different responses. The labeling and stigmatizations directed at the deviants are the principal socializing elements in a society.

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in best nursing essay writers. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from custom nursing papers.