Violate Those Norms
AP Psych
Mr. Aiello
Violate Those Norms - Social Psychology Assignment
Part I – Norms – Pick one of the situations from below and get as many trials as is reasonably possible.
Ensure that your activity clearly violates the norm, but does not break any laws!
1. Enter a coffee shop, snack bar, ice cream shop, etc. and inconspicuously observe the interaction
between two people seated at a small (four-person) table. Then sit down in the third seat at their table
or booth. Sometimes you might say, “Pardon me, is this seat taken?” or “Is it okay if I sit here?”
before sitting down; at other times just sit down and begin to study or eat without acknowledging the
couple’s presence. Is your act taken as a violation of their “intimacy,” their “property”? Does it
matter if you excuse yourself or get permission first? Make systematic variations and record the
results. See if you can work out a way of recording the reactions so that they can be compared across
several experimental variations.
2. Enter a restaurant with a friend and sit at a table or counter seat recently vacated (by another friend).
While you wait for new service to be brought to the table and the old removed, proceed to eat some of
the untouched food left over from the previous diner. In order to make it clear that health-and-disease
concerns are not really the major ones operating, eat some packaged crackers or bread sticks that
obviously have not been touched. You might also have a confederate leave an uneaten piece of pie or
doughnut, etc. How do your unsuspecting friend, other customers, and the waitress react? If the pie
was paid for and left are you not allowed to eat it? Why not?
3. For a week, whenever someone says, “Hi, how ya doing?” give a substantive answer describing in
detail how you are feeling or what you have been doing or thinking. Try to be perfectly honest or
else to emphasize negative things to some selected greeters and positive ones to others. How can you
characterize their reactions while you are talking, and the next time(s) you meet?
4. When talking to another person, either stand very close (within a foot) or else maintain a distance of
nearly three feet. Does your proximity affect the other person’s conversation and other reactions to
you? Is there an “ideal” distance within which you are expected to approach a close friend? An
acquaintance? A stranger? You might precede this experiment by first establishing through
observation the personal space that characterizes certain people you know or people in particular
situations. Do older people like more space than those your age? An alternative is to make as little
eye contact as possible (stare at their ear, or mouth, etc.). Or try blinking every two seconds.
5. Eat a banana by holding it horizontally, peeling back only the top strips of peel while holding it in
both hands like a watermelon. Any reactions?
6. Dress in a fashion that is clearly atypical for you (in a dress or suit if you normally wear jeans, or in a
sweat shirt and jeans if you usually dress up). Or wear clothes that are not appropriate for the
weather (sweater and scarf when warm, etc).
7. Follow the norms of another culture: try bargaining for the price of things, bow to people or kiss them
on the cheek to greet them, hand people things with two hands, look at the floor when shaking hands.
Stand and applaud at the end of a class. Stand near an entrance to school or the Commons and
randomly greet people as they enter.
8. When eating around other people, moan and savor every bite like it is the most amazing food that you
have ever eaten.
Violate Those Norms
AP Psych
Mr. Aiello
Part II – Compliance – For the following scenarios, which factors appeared to increase or decrease
compliance? Include the characteristic of the situation, the source of the compliant request or the
person who receives the request that appears to influence the rate of compliance.
1. Pretend to be making a call and your cell phone runs out of battery. Ask people walking by if you can
use their cell phone to complete your call. Do not pretend that it is an emergency.
2. As you drop your backpack and the contents spill out, you request help from one or more strangers
nearby. Sometimes do not ask for help and see if anyone comes forward on their own. Vary the drop
so that a group of people is walking nearby, versus a solitary person.
3. Pass out leaflets for some obscure cause. Try to get a passerby to help you distribute them. Record
how people refuse you. For those who agree to help, record either how many leaflets they pass out or
for how long they help. Or, when someone else is distributing leaflets, try to get passersby to help
you pick up discarded leaflets in an anti-litter effort. Or, when someone helps you, stop handing
yours out, sit, and watch them, or slip into Starbucks to buy a coffee for yourself. Observe their
reaction to your behavior.
4. Park your car by an expired meter and then ask passersby for change for the meter.
5. Go to a busy street and wait for a parking spot to open up. Then, when someone walks by, ask them
to stand in the spot and hold it for you while you run around the corner to move your car into that
spot. Sometimes, tell the person you are picking up your elderly grandparent from the business
nearest the spot, other times just ask them to do it. How actively do they hold the spot, especially if
someone else tries to pull into the spot while you are getting your car? A confederate to watch the
helper is probably necessary to record their behavior.
6. Prepare a hierarchy of requests to ask unsuspecting people. Start off with a very simple request,
slowly escalate the request until the person finally says no. Vary the types and numbers of subjects
(one person, two, a group, same sex, different sex, same age, older, younger, teacher, etc.). Then do
the opposite – start off with a very difficult request, slowly lower the demands of the request until
they say yes.
Protocol:
• Complete one of the tasks for Part I (violating a norm) and write a short explanation of what you did
and your results. (10 pts)
• Define two social psychology principles, and then explain how each was applied to your situation, and
whether you supported or refuted the ideas of the principle and an analysis of the assignment. (15 pts)
• Complete one task for Part II (asking for compliance) and write a short explanation of what you did
and your results. (10 pts)
• Define two social psychology principles, and then explain how each was applied to your situation, and
whether you supported or refuted the ideas of the principles and an analysis of the assignment. (15 pts)
If you come up with your own task, you must get it approved by Mr. Aiello before conducting the
activity!!