SOC 1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Cash Register, Norm (Social)
Document Summary
Joyful disneyland, mundane supermarkets, and the dreaded dmv. All these places have one thing in common--the line. Of course, everybody knows the particulars of lines: they impose chronological, civil, and fair treatment to everyone; the occasional line-cutter will get hateful stares; and everyone faces forward. Because this last informal norm of facing forward in line is almost innate in our culture of systematic fairness that no one stops to think twice about it, we, Kha ton and megan andya, set out to test this unidirectionality of lines by standing in line facing backwards. We hypothesized that the possible reactions to the norm violation would range from confused, judgemental looks to perhaps a rude confrontation. Common responses we expected were weird looks, people questioning why we were standing backwards, and people who just ignore us. We expected these reactions because we were choosing to stand out and not conform to the usual behavior of standing forward in line.
