Experiment: Breaking Social Norms

Norm:
Taking things from other people’s carts

Hypothesis:
By breaking this norm, we expect strangers to react confused, disturbed and somewhat
mad.

Plan:
-When: March 17,2019
-Where: Jumbo Supermarket
-How: Elena and Grace will approach strangers and they will take products from the
his\her cart. Then, laugh and give it back.

Reflection:
One of the social norms we decided to break was taking things from other people’s
carts. Before breaking it, Elena felt very nervous and excited. Grace on the other hand
felt anxious and embarrassed. While breaking it, both of them felt more confident. At
the end, both of them felt relaxed and relieved that nothing bad happened. Both of them
felt like they would’ve never done it without having the members of the group watching
and encouraging them. They felt some type of moral support. The strangers affected
reacted very calmed and actually thought it was funny. We think that everything
happened how we expected since nothing bad happened and at the end people thought it
was funny. From this project we learned that people sometime look at us in a funny way
when we don’t do things a certain way or we act up in a very different way we were
raised.
Norm:
Singing Happy Birthday to Strangers

Hypothesis:
We count on strangers to react surprised and to think that we may have some kind of
issue.

Plan:
-When: March 17th, 2019
-Where: Jumbo Supermarket
-How: Elena and Angelica are going to sing happy birthday to someone and wait until
they are confused enough to leave.

Reflection:
Other social norm we decided to break was singing happy birthday to a stranger. Before
doing it, Angelica was really excited and very animated while Elena was a bit
embarrassed. While doing it, both felt very awkward. After, they felt very embarrassed
but relieved it was over. Both feel like having their group members was good since they
could all laugh it out in the end. The woman who they sang to felt very uncomfortable
but still she played along. We think that our hypothesis was proven right just because
the woman kept looking at the young girls as if they had mental issues. By breaking this
social norm, we learned that when people do spontaneous things like this, strangers
jump to conclusions that are far from reality.

Norm:
Thinking animatedly out loud

Hypothesis:
By breaking this social norm, we rely that strangers will be confused but at the same
time, they’ll have some fun within the experiment.
Plan:
-When: March 25th,2019
-Where: Jumbo Supermarket
-How: Angelica will start talking by herself very loudly. When she grasps someone
attention, shell start talking about it with the stranger

Reflection:
Today we also grasped people’s attention without even talking or interacting with them.
One of our members, talked very animatedly alone to see how would strangers react to
that. Before breaking the norm, Angelica was feeling confident and ready to do it.
While doing it, she caught a man’s attention and even started talking with him. The guy
felt very uncomfortable at first but after talking with Angelica, he left with a smile on
his face. We think that our hypothesis was right because at first the guy was very
confused on why such a young girl would be at a supermarket alone and talking to
herself but at the end he had fun watching her ad talking with her.

Norm:
Wearing underwear over pants
Hypothesis:
The outcome of breaking this norm will be receiving funny looks from strangers.

Plan:
-When: March 25th,2019
-Where: La Cuadra
-How: Franklin will wear a piece of underwear while walking through the place and
even ordering food at a restaurant.

Reflection:
The last social norm we broke was a very funny one. Franklin would have to wear his
underwear over his pants so that anyone could see it. Before, During and After he felt
calmed and relaxed. He did feel better having his group members with him. Having his
classmates made him feel less awkward and more confident. When they got to the
restaurant, the employees were looking at him funny and tried to keep a straight face
wen receiving the order. Some customers looked at him as if he as if he was crazy. We
think that we proved our hypothesis right because the only outcome of breaking this
norm was receiving funny looks. By breaking this norm, we learned that sometimes
when you do something that it’s not normal to society, people will look at you in many
types of ways but at the end of the day won’t ask any questions if it doesn’t affect them
directly.