Social Norm Examples

Folkways are assumed customs of a society that should and should not occur during casual interaction. Social norms guide social behavior and determine appropriate and inappropriate behavior. In society things like personal space, eye contact, and appropriate clothing attire might be an example of folkways. In this essay, I will analyze society’s reaction to violating normal, everyday folkways regarding invading one’s personal space and paying inconveniently with change. I chose to violate these social norms because they aren’t harmful enough to put me in a bad situation, but at the same time I was able to receive a reaction out of people. For my first experiment, my plan was to invade people’s comfort zones. I decided it would work best at
I thought this would work best at Walmart where there are more people and the check-out lanes are usually longer. I chose small things to buy like a pack of gum and paper clips. The cashier was a lady in her 30s, and gave off the vibe that she was already annoyed. Once I waited in line, I first handed her a gift card to Hibbett Sport’s. I was surprised she didn’t realize the gift card wasn’t to Walmart. She swiped it, and once the card failed I pulled out my wallet and handed her all of my change for her to count. After finding out that I didn’t have enough change, I handed her a $20 bill, grabbed my items change, and walked out. The reactions I got were similar to my first experiment which was annoyance, and in addition impatience. When I’d look away, I noticed in the corner of my eye the cashier would roll her eyes. The lady was not happy that I made her count my change, and became even more annoyed when it wasn’t the correct amount. I could tell she wanted to say something to me, but she couldn’t because it’s her job to be nice to the customers. I expected the customers in line to say something to me or at least show some emotion; However, I was surprised when the customers weren’t fazed by