How Norms Work Research

Cara Tang 134069

Paper #1: How Norms Work

Norms, in plain words, are widely understood customs and unwritten rules of how we should and are expected to behave in particular situations. In this study, the norm I will violate will be the norm of walking. In this experiment, I will attempt to walk backwards to and from some of my classes for one day.

The norm of walking forwards acts as a mechanism of social control as it acts as one of those norms that are universal and indisputable or understood for everyone, without question. I've personally never seen anyone walking sideways like a crab, or walking backwards seriously. Walking

So I'd expect that for the first few seconds, people around me wouldn't think much of my walking backwards, but people who walk with me or follow the same path with me to wherever they're going for quite some time will definitely think it weird or strange. I also hypothesize that while some people may think it strange and maybe whisper about it, some people also won't give much attention to me and wouldn't bother to waste their thoughts on just one weird person going against the flow when everyone else is following the norm anyway. Overall however, the general reaction I'd expect would be that people would think I'm strange or weird and this might show in minor changes in their facial expressions. In other words, I'd also generally expect the feeling of being

I also felt very conscious of myself, especially because some people were staring at me. I probable felt this way because I was going against the grain of what is normal, and felt weird about it myself. Also, because as a person, I'm really quite self-conscious anyway. From my friends, the initial reaction I got was them looking at me weirdly, but in a joking way. When they soon found out I was doing this for an experiment though, they just laughed at me and later when I did it again, started getting quite annoyed because I was distracting and walking quite slowly especially from class when there were lots of people. From acquaintances, I noticed that they just smiled at me, but with a smile that seemed unsure or dubious. I could tell that they were thinking, "What is this girl doing?" Some of them asked me why I was walking backwards though, and I told them the truth. When I did, a look of understanding then showed on their faces. For strangers most of all, many of them didn't really mind me, some made facial expressions to their friends that you could tell meant they thought I was strange, some of them were staring in an entertained way, especially with me trying to get down the stairs walking backward, while some of them just had annoyed looks on their faces. Most people actually reacted the way I expected them to react, I could tell that