Sociology

Our group decided to do a video containing all the information and actual footage of our experiment. We felt that most people understand things better by having visual examples. In the experiment each team member violated one social norm for a total of three violated. The first norm violated was Ryan Sharkey trying to interact with people while in the bathroom stall. Ryan entered the bathroom, sat in the stall beside a person, and started to make casual conversation. Ryan did this three different times so that the group could try to get a good variance in reactions. The third time he actually talked to someone from the shower. The social norm that was violated was having a conversation in the bathroom. People usually do not talk in the bathroom because it is viewed as awkward. The second social norm violated was Ethan Vogt “surfing” on the elevator. The group got on the elevator and rode up and down while people got on. Then, Ethan would ask, “ Have you ever been elevator surfing?” After this, Ethan would start doing a motion as if he was surfing. This violated a social norm of people not usually talking or interacting on elevators. The third and final social norm we violated was Hali Boland standing extremely close to people on the elevator. The group rode up and down the elevators in South Carrick and waited for people to get on. Then, Hali moved really close to the people and stood until they got off. This violated the norm that people usually space themselves apart on elevators to reduce any chance of contact. The group’s personal reactions to the violations were similar in some ways, but still varied. Ryan felt surprised when people actually talked back to him. This is because he felt that if he was in the situation he would have just ignored the person talking. Some people did not do this. Another reaction was when people ignored Hali standing close to them on the elevator. The

people obviously knew that she was standing close, but they decided not to say anything. Our group thought this was kind of weird because we predicted people would move away or say something. There were many different reactions from the people who were part of the experiment. In the bathroom experiment one guy awkwardly answered the questions but he was uncomfortable. Also, one person just acted like nobody was talking. Then, in the shower conversation, the guy acted like talking in the shower was a normal practice. During the elevator surfing the reactions were pretty much the same. Most people at first thought it was awkward, then started to laugh and thought it was funny. The third scenario also had reactions that were similar to each other. The people just stood there and knew Hali was standing close but were not nervous enough to move away or say something. Some of these reactions were expected. With that being said our group was still surprised by the reactions to some of the violations.