Role Of Deviance In Society

Deviance in US Society

Shyana Burks-Diggins

Community College of Aurora

Deviance in US Society From the afternoon at peak activity through the evening, I broke the social norm of door holding at the Southlands mall. To be specific I decided to did not hold the door at every store I entered and attempted to close the door as I left. I took it one step further when the door was held for me and just walked through without showing gratitude. The stores I chose were high traffic like H&M, Barnes & Nobles, Tutti Frutti Frozen Yogurt, Chipotle, and Hot Topic. I also chose Woodshark because although it is a small store it had a random spurt of activity that I chose to take advantage of. Timing was everything with this experiment

The woman behind me was around 5 to 8 feet behind me when I entered and the door awkwardly closed in front of her. The sanction I received was a clicking of her tongue as she opened the door and proceeded through. I received multiple reactions such as this as well as more verbal confrontations when people frustratingly asked “What was wrong with me? “or “Seriously?” or just brief curses calling me an a****** or a b****. I received the more negative sanctions when I attempted to close the door behind me. At Woodshark, the door was right in front of the register so I also received a strange look from the cashier. I also noticed that when I went through doors that were opened for me, older individuals were more offended than young adults or teenagers when I did not express a thank you or a nod of appreciation. However, I could not be consistent with this test when it came to a family entering Tutti Frutti with their two children at the front of the group because my own moral boundaries and the sanction would have been too great along with the embarrassment that would

Not that it does not happen now, but we have equal expectations for both. Also in premodern times, social class made the difference in what we expect people to do when a person of a higher status approaches a door rather than a commoner. This norm is useful to society because it reflects social cohesion by taking the physical task off someone else’s hands and expressing gratitude when it the task is handled for us. It also symbolizes respect, to show that we are on equal footing in this