For this assignment, commit a MILDLY deviant act or engage in some form of mildly deviant behavior. The act or behavior must NOT violate ethical
guidelines, the law, or University regulations. The actions you take to break this MILD norm must be LEGAL; they must be ETHICAL; they must be MORAL.
Failure to heed this warning will result in an F for the assignment and referral to the Dean’s Office.
Select one of the norms listed below (or propose your own but check with me first.) After selecting your social norm, find the appropriate situation that will
allow you to break it. Please consider the following during this process:
Be mindful of safety issues. The object of this assignment is NOT to put anyone at risk of being harmed, either physically or psychologically. Choose your
situation carefully. Do not disrupt the lives of strangers. For the more challenging or potentially disruptive norms, you may want to break them in situations
involving family, friends, or close acquaintances.
Immediately prior to, during, and after deviance exercise, avoid explaining to anyone why you are acting in such a peculiar way. It is much more challenging to
break a social norm when you do not immediately explain to others why you have done so – remember the Goffman reading on stigma? Telling someone
you’re doing this for a school assignment allows us to avoid feeling stigmatized but the point of this assignment is precisely to feel stigmatized, in a nominal
way. (Feel free to explain your behavior to the participants at a later time [e.g., the next day], though, if you wish to do so.)
You are not allowed to have others (e.g., friends, family, etc.) who know about this assignment help you break the norm; you must do so on your own. They
can be present when you do it, but they can’t know why you are doing it.
You are not allowed to break norms in this class or with classmates from this class. (Because we all know about the assignment, it would be too easy to do it
in our class.)
Avoid norm breaking in any other class. Norm breaking must not disrupt the educational process in any way.
I encourage you to challenge yourself; select the most difficult social norm that you are confident that you can break. If you get no reaction to your norm
breaking, break a different norm and try again.
Break elevator norms: face wrong way, sing a song, tell jokes, have a picnic, study, etc.
Proximity norms:
Sit/stand too close/far from people (probably friends and family only)
Cutting in line
Standing too close to a stranger
Hanging out in a public bathroom
Invading another's personal space when talking to him/her
Clothing norms: Wear unusual clothing but make sure people notice
Go without shoes or wearing inappropriate shoes
Walking with fly down, shirt tucked through it
Wear clothes backwards/inside out
Wear underwear outside of clothing
Wear holiday clothes on the wrong day
Funny walks: Bunny-hop instead of walk, walk backwards, emulate any of the walks from Monty Python’s skit “The Ministry of Silly Walks”
Interaction norms:
Interrupting someone constantly.
Carry a baby bottle or pacifier and use it.
Visibly pick your nose in public.
Walk around handing out pennies or fake money to complete strangers.
Carry a baby doll or teddy bear with you and talk to it.
Sit in the middle of the sidewalk.
Make multiple purchases of at least $5 entirely in pennies, nickels, and/or dimes.
Without giving a reason, ask bus, train, or subway passengers if you may have their seat.
Refuse to talk to others when you should (remember, do NOT use this in another class)
Avoid eye contact when you should
Smile, say “hi” to everyone when you shouldn’t (e.g., in the middle of a conversation)
Always answer “how are you?” with an elaborate answer
Talk too loudly or too softly
Carry stuffed animal/doll to restaurants, friend’s house, class, etc. (but this should be out of the norm – either inappropriate to who you are, a totally outsized
stuffed animal, etc.)
Sing in odd places
Stare up at the sky so that people notice
Intense eye contact with others (probably friends and family only)
Keep to activities that are unlikely to provoke, anger, or injure anyone. Please keep in mind Item 1 from the assignment instructions: Safety comes first! -- do
not put yourself or anyone else at risk for being harmed, either physically, psychologically, or legally. This is intended to be a challenging but fun and safe
activity.
Reflect on your experience of being deviant. Your reflection should include:
Which norm you decided to break
A brief chronological descriiption of your experience:
Describe the sequence of events.
Describe your thoughts, concerns, and feelings as you prepared to break the norm.
Describe your behavior when you broke the norm.
Describe how others reacted when you broke the norm. Describe their verbal and nonverbal communication you received telling you what you were doing
was out of the norm.
Describe your thoughts/concerns/feelings while you were breaking the norm.
Describe how easy/difficult it was to break the norm.
Describe how easy/difficult it was to resist telling others (either a lie or the truth) about why you were breaking the norm.
Rate how difficult it was to break the norm using the following 1-10 scale: 1 = very easy to 10 = extremely difficult.
Include any final comments or thoughts about this assignment.
Post your 2-page reaction paper here.
Sample Solution