Breaking A Social Norm Essay

For our group and our shared love of food we figured that a social norm that had something to do with that would be perfect for us. We decided that the norm to drive through a drive thru needed to be tested. Why should cars be the only ones with the fast access to fast food at their convenience? We believed that people should be able to walk through the drive thrus if it is more convenient for them. This social norm exists for the simple reason of humans being afraid of social interaction and they believe that driving their cars through a drive thru is more convenient and more time efficient . This social norm is beneficial to our society because not only does it create more jobs for people but, it also gives people a sense of organization. To violate this social norm, we had two people for each drive thru. For our first attempt we had Samantha and me walk up to the Wendy’s drive through and just stand normally behind a car. As we waited for the cars to pass so we could finally get to order, we realized that we couldn’t. For some reason the machine wouldn’t let us put our order in, so we decided to try our luck at the next

The problem that I came when trying to break a social norm is trying to find a reason to. In other words most social norms are there for a reason and especially when such a big number of people do just group together and don’t “think outside of the box” were stuck with them. In Under the Influence: How the Group Changes What We Think by Shirley S Wang she talks about how social norms get their power. Dr Berger states that “The more public and object or behavior is, the more likely it is to spread.” It can be something as small as the type of shoe someone wears but if more and more people are wearing them then more and more people will want them. Social norms are a necessity to our society for how they help everyone out and in our case would have made it more time