Essay about Breaking the Norm

Submitted By jw00000
Words: 432
Pages: 2

The norm that was broken during this experiment was to address people by the wrong title. Over a period of three days a total of 10 people were unknowingly subjected to this broken norm. The actual results were similar to the expected results. On day one two individual males were addressed to as ma’am instead of sir. Both individuals paused for a moment but did not stay quiet about this broken norm. The first gentleman said, “Excuse me?” The second said, “Huh?” One this same day the females that were addressed incorrectly said nothing and acted as if they did not hear the broken norm. The second day was somewhat uneventful due to all subjects (one male and one female) staying quiet and acting as if nothing happened. Day three was a different since all the subjects seemed irritated. The first male responded with, “Do I look like a woman to you?” The second male said, “What did you just call me?” The female subjects responded with, “Come again” and “really?” The trend of responses was the first thing that caught my attention with day three, which was a Monday, when all the subjects seemed overly irritated. The first day was a Saturday, and the second day was a Sunday. It may be society or just the individuals’ environment, but the males seemed to be more confrontational with this minor mishap due to pride or any other number of reasons. The females may have possibly been just as uncomfortable with being addressed wrong but stayed less confrontational about it. After all of the subject’s responses I immediately apologized and changed the subject, but if I were