Social Norm Violations

Norm Violation In today society social norms are little things in life that make people feel comfortable and help them to go through everyday activities. Social Norms are beliefs about what is acceptable in society. They are rules that a group uses for appropriate and inappropriate values, beliefs, attitudes and behaviors. These rules may be explicit or implicit. People often associate the most memorable behavior with the majority behavior and hence the rules about that is normative in that social context. I decided that I was going to wear my clothes inside out as I went shopping at Target as my social norm violation. It’s just a common thing that you wear your clothes the right way and it’s something everyone does, everyday. Yes there are times when
I decided to wear my jeans inside out, (which is extremely awkward if you have never tried it) and my shirt, as I proceeded to walk into Target. I had my girlfriend accompany me on this, though she found it very funny, I felt very uncomfortable. Myself, I shop at Target because I like the atmosphere better as opposed to a Wal-Mart. Target seems to have a less bizarre population of shoppers and it’s more comfortable to me because of this. That is preciously why I chose this spot to test out my norm violation. Dangling pockets and all, I started on the grocery side of the store to do my shopping. This is usually the busiest part of the store so I thought it would be the best starting spot. I was hard pressed to make eye contact with anyone as I did my shopping, particularly because I am shy by nature and now I was even shyer knowing my clothes were inside out. I relied on my peripheral vision, and my girlfriend was with me to help observe people’s reactions. It seemed that a lot of people were so absorbed into what they were doing that they didn’t even notice the details of my clothing, or they were trying to be polite and not stare at me. However, my girlfriend and I noticed many people giving puzzled