Violation of Social Norms

Violated! A Report on Social Norms My mother always told me that there are things that you just don’t do. For example, horsing around in Church, being loud and yelling at the table or in public, picking your nose, etc. While your mother may have simply called this “behaving,” sociologists call these things social norms. Social norms are defined as “the implicit or explicit rules a group has for the acceptable behaviors, values, and …

…invasion of space might have been less reprehensible, indeed, even standard. Social norms are cultural products, and as such we should always be aware of the local norms of polite behavior when we are traveling to a foreign, strange place. So, while it may be fun to sometimes “think outside the box” and act in an unorthodox behavior, we should keep in mind the value of social norms and their positive effect upon effective interaction.