Essay On Nonverbal Norm

The non-verbal norm that I decided to break was; invading a persons personal space. The person I decided to use in this experiment was my friend Annabel, the same person that I talked about in the first assignment. Even though we are close friends we do not have much contact, no hugs or anything. Therefore our personal boundaries are the same as any other set of people: six inches to a foot. Even though we are around each other a lot I decided the best time to break this non-verbal social normality was while in a sauna. This is because there in no better place to invade a persons personal space then in a room where the minimum temperature is 125 degrees and while you both are covered in sweat. To begin, I sat the normal distance which is …show more content…
I should also mention at this point I also created space between us, to make the area more comfortable for the both of us. After explaining to her what I was doing, I asked Annabel questions regarding how she felt during the duration of my experiment in which I had to break a non-verbal norm. Annabel stated that when I first moved closer to her in the beginning, she was confused and thought that maybe there was just something wrong with the area I was sitting in and that was the reason that I was moving closer. She realized that was not the reason though when I continued to inch my way closer to her, which was the reason that she started to move away from me. I then asked her about her lack of response when I blatantly ignored her when she asked me what I was doing. Annabel then informed me that it is not unusual for me to ignore what she says and at this point she kinda just expects it. When she said this it made me realize that maybe I do not listen to people all of the time and maybe I break that normality without even thinking about it. Which could also be the reason why, when I tried an experiment with my mom that involved me not responding or looking at her when she talked, did not work at