Ankle bracelets are worn across the world. From Egypt to Hawaii, they are both statements of fashion and culture. But for some reason, I have never seen anyone in my town, or even when traveling to other states, wearing them. In fact, when my mom brought one home from Hawaii, I tried putting it on my wrist.
Anklets are an example of the second kind of social norm. Even when there is no such explicit knowledge of people being criticized for wearing anklets, we just don’t wear them.
My mom said that she saw many women wearing anklets when in Hawaii. Anklet wearing not a huge mechanism of social control, but it is a tiny factor that symbolizes that where we live impacts what is considered socially acceptable. There are some things that are fashionably
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It felt odd having something wrapped around my ankle. But after a couple of hours, I forgot it was even there. I even started subconsciously fiddling with it. I got used to it pretty quickly.
As far as people’s reactions go, even though it was subtle, over the course of 2 days 4 different people commented on it. They all complimented me. One girl even asked me where I had gotten it from. This part was unexpected. Even though it isn’t commonly worn, they admired it. I think that if I had continued the experiment, I probably could have gotten others to wear it. I could have even made it a social norm.
One other thing I noticed was that the only people that noticed the norm violation were girls. Which makes sense, because girls are more sensitive to what’s socially acceptable as far as fashion goes.
The results were pretty much as I expected them to be- no major reactions, just some minor comments.
This experiment did prove several things. Even small social norm violations are recognized. With some social norm violations, our opinions can shift from being reproachful, to admiring it, to being inclined to violate the social norm ourselves. Finally, where we live, what our gender is, who we are, and what we recognize differs from person to person. This means that we all have our own versions of what we believe is socially acceptable, and what