Social Norms Are Unspoken Rules In Society

Social norms are unspoken rules in society that we go by in our everyday lives. We abide by these rules because that’s what society taught us was acceptable. Also, our own observations on people’s behaviors give us ideas on what acting in a “normal” way is supposed to look like. So what happens when someone does not follow these set of rules that society has set? Well, they may have just earned themselves some funny looks from others. When someone deviates from these norms they face some form of social repercussion like, being shunned, being laughed at, talked about or could even be physically harmed. I believe that’s why so many of us fear being ourselves in public and being able to do things that make us happy.
There are two types of norms, formal norms and informal norms. Formal norms can be viewed as rules or laws that are usually written down, they are strict and punishable if broken in any way. One example are the laws in the United States created by the Government in order to have some control …show more content…
Our final project in psychology class was to break a norm, it had to be legal no one was to get hurt. Not everyone can say that their teacher sent them out to break the “rules”. Me and a group of friends went to the local mall, we sat on an elevator at Sears and just waited for people’s reactions. Imagine what people thought when they wanted to get on the elevator but there’s a group of teens just sitting there. The funniest thing was when people just stood there, looking very confused and deciding whether they actually wanted to get on. Some people laughed at us, some gave us mean looks and others decided complain to the store manager and got us kicked out. It was a very odd experience because we knew we weren’t doing anything illegal, yet at the same time it felt like we were. There are no set rules that say we have to stand in an elevator, so why does society say we have