Hello there! We've been busy at work learning various sociological terminology to get a hang of how to think scientifically about our sociological imaginations. Recently we studied conformity and deviance. To test the kind of "informal sanctions" that meet small deviant acts. The campus was our laboratory!
We had three groups.
Group 1:
Two students walked down the up escalator...
They reported that people "actively" ignored their act of deviance.
Group 2:
One student sat down and read a book in an elevator. The other students in the groups acted as observers, anonymously watching reactions...
They reported that when the student was in the chair, they didn't feel that the act was "deviant" enough to attract attention. So the student sat on the floor of the elevator. This got more attention. Some people didn't get on the elevator, and one person took a photo of him! These result had us think a little bit about social reactions to mildly deviant or unusual acts in the age of Twitter.
Group 3:
One student danced in front of the library while others acted as observers...
As you can notice from the video, some people laughed, some people ignored him. One person said, "he's crazy."As you can also notice from the video, people also cleared away from the area where he was dancing.
In all three cases, students also noted that they felt a bit nervous before acting against the social norms that govern the campus. Is that kind of feeling a product of our long socialization in schools?
So the kind of "informal sanctions" students felt and observed included: "active ignoring," ridicule, and having their photo taken. How might reactions be different if these acts were done elsewhere?
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