Burger King Social Norm Essay

For my social norm violation I decided to order Burger King’s and Wendy’s food at McDonald’s. I chose to break this social norm because, here in America, the majority of people know what type of food each fast food chain offers. For example, everyone knows that a Big Mac is from McDonald’s and a Whopper is from Burger King. I wanted to see the reaction I would get from the McDonald’s employees if I tried to order a Whopper and a baconator. So, I went to the McDonald’s on Weber at a time when it wasn’t busy (so I wouldn’t hold up the line if I took a long time). I pulled up to the McDonald’s drive-thru menu and the man asked me what I wanted. I told him that I would take 2 Whoppers with no cheese and a small fry. At first, he said ok but then realized what I had just said. He
I didn’t want to annoy the employee so I just ordered a Big Mac. When I pulled up to the window, I was nervous; I didn’t want the employee to see me because I had just made a fool of myself. But, the employee did see me and noticed that I was a teenager. He immediately assumed that I was part of a prank and asked me, “So where’s the camera?” to which I replied “What camera?” He chuckled, handed me the Big Mac, and I drove off. On the drive home, I laughed the whole time. I kept picturing the man’s face when he asked me where the camera was. But, along with the fun, this experiment was also a great learning experience. I learned that violating a social norm isn’t such a big deal after all. Before, I thought that doing something like this would be embarrassing and that people, like the McDonald’s employees, would make fun of me. But the only response I got from the McDonald’s employees was a little chuckle and life continued. Perhaps I shouldn’t worry about my social mistakes too much because the people around me don’t really care as much as I think they