I was on the first floor of Clemons earlier this week, being a hard-core nerd and such, when in my peripheral vision I witnessed what should have been a peculiar sight: A male student had entered the bottom level of the building, sat down and casually removed his shirt. While I counted a couple of bulged eyeballs aimed in the direction of Joe Six-Pack (har har), most of the studying public continued its schoolwork and ignored him. I heard a student across the table whisper to a friend, “Another one of those norm-breaking experiments ... Ugh.”
Then, when I was getting some groceries last weekend, a girl went around shopping out of other people’s carts. I’m not kidding: that bully took my box of rigatoni and never gave it back. But when she would reach into another cart and grab an item, the other shoppers would only shrug, roll their eyes or just ignore her altogether. One guy even just confronted her with the look-I-know-you’re-doing-one-of-those-social-experiments-but-I-really-want-my-cereal-back speech. Pretty powerful stuff, if you ask me.
Hopefully you know what I’m referring to, but maybe your forte doesn’t lie within the fields of sociology or psychology. Or maybe you don’t associate with people who have such academic tendencies. Or maybe you just don’t have friends.
Anyway, I’m talking about the project assigned by almost every class within the social sciences that requires students to break a social norm — an unspoken rule within society, a pattern of behavior about which no one talks but by which everyone abides. Like, say, wearing clothes in libraries and shopping from Harris Teeter shelves, not carts. And so, for a short duration in the middle of the fall and spring semesters, students scurry around Grounds instigating odd occurrences. They eat fries on the treadmill at the AFC, wear their clothes inside-out or order hamburgers at Starbucks.
I’m not saying it’s a bad experiment. I actually think that defying social standards provides insight into the powerful boundaries within society. But the thing is, even if you haven’t been in a sociology or psychology class, you know the assignment exists. So when you see people doing homework at a frat party or tap dancing through Alderman Café, you automatically assume it’s for a norm-breaching project. These experiments are becoming ineffective, you see, because everyone realizes what’s going on. In fact, whenever something unusual happens around here, people’s first assumption is that there is a social psych student behind it.
So, in an effort to not be the dummy who “fell for it,” you don’t react. Or you roll your eyes. Or ask for your cereal back. But you don’t dare act surprised or shocked. You’re just too clever, aren’t you?
Or are you just stubborn? That’s right, U.Va., I’m calling you out. Cue “The Lone Ranger” music. Hi-Yo, Silver, away! But seriously, give these kids a break. You think they want to be paying in Canadian money at Crossroads? You think they enjoy sunbathing in the Amphitheater in the wintertime? They do these things because they have to. And your reaction is what counts for their final paper.
So the next time you see a student trick-or-treating on the Lawn (three weeks after Halloween), raise your eyebrows. Act a little flabbergasted. Gasp loudly or something. Spread the love, people. Maybe acting surprised is one norm that shouldn’t be broken.
Lauren’s column runs biweekly Thursdays. She can be reached at l.kimmel@cavalierdaily.com.
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