Essay On Social Norm

Since I live on a Marine base where men outnumber women 100 to 1 I find it a little difficult to get out and about in my community. Taking into consideration that this assignment is all about violating social norms this in turn made me think about what kind of social norm, I would actually be comfortable violating in public. Social norm as defined by Steven Durlauf (2007) of Johns Hopkins University “social norms are customary rules of behavior that coordinate our interactions with others” (p. 1). After much thought, I decided to go with asking someone at the local Starbucks if I could have their seat.
After reading this week’s chapter on social psychology I planned out my experiment based on the goal of getting as many people as possible to give me their seat. The day quickly came when I was to actually conduct my experiment, but I was indeed ready. After informing the Starbucks staff of my experiment, and gingerly taking a poll of how many people would give up their seat I started. During the busiest hours, …show more content…
Only six out of ten people gave up their seat during the busy morning hour. Surprised with the lack of altruism I chose to redo my experiment the next day, but go back at a different time. This time I started at two in the afternoon. During this time I found that all ten people I asked to give up their seat indeed did. During the early morning test I found that the number of people who did not give up their seat usually gave an excuse in not doing so. For example, one man said that he had sprained his ankle the previous day and needed the seat, but no brace could be seen. Next, a woman in her mid-twenties said that she could not give up her seat because she was pregnant, but her pregnancy bump could barely be seen. The excuses people made not to give up their seat was indeed an excuse, but I do think that an excuse is easier to take than an impolite