Introduction:
Let us begin with a famous quote by Criss Jami, “In an extrovert society, the difference between an introvert and an extrovert is that an introvert is often unconsciously deemed guilty until proven innocent” which shows how judgemental a society can be. But first how do we define a norm? Norm is defined as expectations or rules of a behaviour that develop out of values. Social norms grow out of social values and serve to differentiate human social behaviour from that of other species. Norms are the means through which values are expressed in behaviour. Social norms are values developed by a group of people that specify how people must, should, may, should not and must not behave in various situations. Such musts are often labelled “moves”. A term coined by the American Sociologist William Graham Sumner. Since norms derive from values and since complex societies have multiple and conflicting value system, it follows that norms frequently are in conflict also.
Expressions of approval or disapproval given by the people for upholding or violating norms as defined as sanctions, i.e. reactions of people subjected to a social scenario.
Since these social norms vary from one group of people to another, the repercussions that occur out of a similar situation are different for different people. Violating these norms is quite common, almost obvious in a certain way since people are nurtured from childhood with different social values.
DESIGNING A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT
NORM VIOLATION:
“Couple kissing in a Chinese restaurant in Kolkata, India at around 09:00PM.
In a typical Bengali society, as per social norms, public display of affection is a strict no-no. moreover, let us visualize the setting- time taken into consideration is 09:00PM which is considered to be peak hours for dinner at a restaurant, so the restaurant is likely to be filled with people of all age groups, professionals and genders. Let us classify the different strata of people as per their age and expected reactions.
(1)People of age> 70 years having old school of thought are dinning with their family.(2)Middle aged family persons and professionals 40-70 years.(3)College boys and young professionals 18-40 years.(4)Young kids, school children and babies < 18 years
EXPECTED REACTIONS:
The expected reactions are feeling of disgust, complaints and irritation, awkwardness, slightly disgusted, preventing their children from visualising the scene, mostly scattered reactions, giggles, talking amongst themselves, regarding the incident, unaware of the happenings and so on.
LIKELY OUTCOMES
The outcome of the event will depend upon the nature of the action and time period
For a short kiss, people might simply look at them and allow the event to pass by without any action.For a kiss of longer duration, one of the fellow co-diners may tell them to stop as it might have been causing discomfort to their families.For a vigorous kiss of longer duration, the restaurant authorities might step in as it can be deemed as obscene as per the social norms
SANCTIONS
For the first case the couple might be subjected to some awkward looks or loose comments.For the second case the couple might be subjected to moral policing by some people in the restaurants, mostly those belonging to group 1 and 2 strata of people.For the third case, the restaurant authorities might ask the couple to behave soberly n give a verbal warning. They might be warned to behave as per social norms or to leave the restaurant to maintain its ambience. It might further lead to installation of CCTVs and stricter norms to prevent any such events in the future.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTUAL NORM VIOLATION
EVENT STATISTICS:
Rahul (22) and Pooja (20) both studying B.Tech from a well reputed university went to Mandarin Restaurant in south Kolkata, India at 08:30 PM on 24th March, 2016.
The couple took a seat near the window of the Chinese restaurant, slightly away from the central position. After making themselves comfortable, they ordered the food to the waiter. While they waited for the food to be served they tried to express their love for each other by exchanging gifts, rose, cards, holding each other’s hand and looking into the eyes.
The crowd comprises of people of different age groups and professionals and the restaurant can be considered to be full. Till this point, the crowd in general are busy among themselves, only a couple of college goers were talking with each other pointing towards the couple about how they are expressing their love.
Rahul and Pooja kissed each other on the lips for about 10-15 seconds which will fall in our category 2
CROWD REACTION:
Six to eight elderly people seemed very shocked after which their expressions turned to hatred and disgust and they started talking about ill effects of modern day society and style of upbringing of children. A couple of people aged in their mid-fifties showed disgust and tried to divert the attention of their children. A sense of awkwardness prevailed over those in their forties who were present with their families while those who were alone seemed unperturbed. Most people in the age of 25-40 neither made any comments nor gave any distinct looks but tried to ignore the situation. People aged 18-25 was either laughing amongst themselves making comments and remarks or did not bother to introspect too much.
Below the age of 18, school children and kids who were mostly with their families seemed uninterested and those who were looking towards the couple gave no expression due to fear of their parents.
REFLECTIONS AND SUMMARY
Let us summarize our case study: Norm violation - category type 2 violation i.e. kiss of medium duration
Expected outcome – Disgust(>70), Awkwardness (age-40-70), Mixed reaction (age-18-40),No Reaction (age<18)
Expected Sanctions - Couple subjected to moral policing by those belonging to strata 1 and 2 age group.
Actual outcome – disgust and hatred (>70), Awkwardness, protecting their children from viewing the scene (40-70), undisturbed, slight discomfort (18-40), No reaction (<18)
Actual sanctions – no moral policing, only stern looks by elderly people
PERSONAL REACTIONS
It was interesting to visualize the outcome, noting the change of expressions of the people with time span change, change of behaviour of restaurant staffs from welcoming type to slightly hostile, etc
LEARNINGS
We noted that the society is more open towards PDA, Middle aged strata accepting the event more than expected, People are unwilling to change or accept new thoughts or happenings specially those belonging to the older age group, Gen X and Gen Y are more open towards the event unperturbed and ready for change, those who are unaware of the social norms have no reactions to such events.
IMPROVEMENT FOR FUTURE EXPERIMENTS
We can take up more cases of violation of social norms, experiments to be conducted at different locations for the same violation, categorize the crowd more specifically to create more discrete sample spaces, incorporate mathematical models and more data in social experiments for greater interpretation and analysis.
“People are going to behave, however the social norms permit and beyond that”- Max Cannon
