Violation of Norm: Escalator Etiquette and Personal Space
In
conducting the breaching experiment, the norms of escalator etiquette and
personal space were violated. The experimenters observed that the norm on the
escalator is either a combination of people using their phones, holding the
handrails, talking to the person they came with, or simply standing still until
they get to their destination floor. Normally, it is very unusual to interact
with other people on the escalator unless one personally know them. Similarly,
it is unexpected for people to be approached and talked to by strangers on the
escalator. Since both the ascending and descending escalators used in the
experiment were placed next to each other, the experiment was also able to
deviate from the norm of personal space since it involved reaching over the
opposite escalator to hold a stranger’s hand.
The Breaching Experiment Proper
The breaching experiment
the group had performed dealt with the use of escalators and the concept of
personal space. The group executed the breaching experiment at 2:30 pm on a
Friday (3rd of March, 2017) in Regis Center Katipunan which is a high-traffic
time and place where college students, high school students and adults use the
escalators going from the first to the second floor and vice versa. The way the
group had conducted the experiment was by having one of the experimenters ride
one of two side-by-side escalators, of which he chose to ride the escalator
going up for consistency and ease of access. Documentation of the targets’
reactions was made possible since the targets were going down the escalator,
and the other experimenters were positioned at the ground floor, near where the
targets would get off. The deviance of escalator etiquette was demonstrated on
the escalator when the experimenter would reach out his hand towards another
person who was riding the opposite escalator as they passed by each other. With
the volume of people going through the escalators, the experimenters were able
to record the participants’ reactions from different gender and age groups.
After conducting the
breaching experiment, the experimenters were able to gather mostly similar
reactions from they attempted the experiment on. The most common reaction that
was received by the group was that of surprise and shock. Some of the subjects
showed their surprise more subtly, by just looking at the experimenter with
widened eyes or raised eyebrows, while some of them reacted more strongly,
showing their surprise and even fear through interjections or by clutching
their hands to their chest. A possible explanation to this reaction is that the
norm for riding on elevators entails that people will be able to simply stand
in peace without interaction from other people. However, the sudden reaching
out of a stranger’s hand while one is standing on an elevator can become an
alarming outside stimulus.
Aside from the initial
shock, the sudden appearance of a stranger’s hand was able to prompt some
different reactions from the subjects. A common reaction is that the people who
saw the stranger’s hand tried to ignore or move away from it. When asked about
what they felt during the experiment, most of them said that they shocked or
“weirded out” by the sudden gesture. Most likely, their reactions were a
manifestation of the deviance of the norm of personal space. The experiment,
which involved reaching out a hand towards a stranger, may have made the
subjects feel as if their personal space is being encroached upon. To remedy
this fear, most of them instinctively reacted to move away from the
experimenter’s hand.
One interesting reaction
gathered from the experiment was that some people actually reached out and
shook the experimenter’s hand despite him being a stranger. When the people
were debriefed, most of them who returned the experimenter’s gesture explained
that the reason they shook his hand was because they thought he was an
acquaintance and they tried to recognize whether or not they knew him. Despite
returning the gesture, they were still mostly shocked and confused about what
was happening. From the reactions collected by the group, it can be inferred
that deviant act conducted in the experiment was able to reinforce the norms of
escalator etiquette and personal space.
Experiment Observations
The following is a consolidated list of
reactions from those who participated in the breaching experiment.
|
Men
|
Women
|
|
|
Teenagers/High school
students
|
(No chance to observe)
|
·
Shocked
·
Started to return the gesture but thought
twice and retracted hand
|
|
College Students
|
·
Mixed reactions ranging from “weirded out” to
“pretty cool”
|
·
Surprised
·
Found it awkward and did not return the
gesture
|
|
Adults
|
·
Shocked; felt privacy was invaded with no
explanation
·
Shocked, but returned gesture because he
thought the experimenter was an acquaintance
·
Returned the gesture, but stared at him to see
if he can recognize him
·
Shocked at first but thought nothing of it
after
|
·
Simply ignored experimenter by not looking at
him
·
Shocked and ended up avoiding experimenter
·
Scared because she didn’t know him; also
attempted to recognize him
|
Perhaps one of the
clearer sociological themes observed was how gender affected the reactions of
the people in the experiment. Women, as observed, were more shocked and avoided
the experimenter more often than the men, who would return the gesture, with one
even finding it “pretty cool”. It is possible that the women would get the
impression that the male experimenter was doing said deviant behavior in order
to flirt or “hit on” them. This would then support a gender-specific norm,
where women would most often ignore, avoid or maybe even violently react to
sudden advances by men. With this in mind, the group came to realize after the
experiment that perhaps if gender roles were reversed (a woman suddenly
reaching out to men and other women), there would possibly be different
reactions.
In terms of age
difference, the targets who belonged to the age bracket of college students
found the gesture “pretty cool” compared to the adults who often let the action
go. The reactions reinforced the existing norms where such odd gestures were
more “acceptable” if done by a peer belonging to a similar age group.
Furthermore, the bigger age gap with the older participants could have caused
more awkwardness, where judgments can originate from the impression that the
younger generation involves themselves in “crazy” and “impulsive” behavior.
Personal Reflection
The experience of
violating the expected personal space varied from person to person. There was a
general sense of hesitation regardless of the target, which stemmed from
various sources. Personal space, in virtually all cultures, is an important
matter, signaling where a person stands on the spectrum of unfriendliness and
insensitivity. To violate another’s personal space by entering too far into it
felt like trying to dominate and coerce another person, as they would most
likely interpret the act as reducing their locus of control. There was also the
fear of explicit resistance, whether through verbal or physical refusals (e.g.
saying “Go away from me!”), as well as the fear of drawing undue attention to
the self and being alienated, albeit briefly, from the small group of people
present there. There was also the ever-present risk of formal punishment at the
hands of the authorities (i.e. security guards). This would most likely take
the form of a request to leave, which, although ultimately inconsequential,
would further shame the experimenter.
Among
people of a similar age and background, such a breach could have been
considered a misguided show of affection (i.e. the target assumes that the
experimenter mistook them for somebody else). However, the breach could have
been construed as a hostile display. For instance, a female, or even a male,
could have perceived the act as a form of mild sexual aggression. The fear of
being alienated and perceived as overly sexually driven, added to the relative
closeness of such targets (making alienation from them all the more painful),
caused the experimenter some anxiety.
Paradoxically,
among people of vastly different ages and backgrounds, the fear of alienation
was equally strong, exacerbated by the distance between the experimenter and
the target. Among older people, the breach could have been construed as an
affront to their authority (Philippine society, in most areas, places high
value on age as a sign of maturity and wisdom). The social distance between the
experimenter and the subject meant that the subject was less likely to
empathize or forgive the experimenter, thus magnifying any hostility they might
have felt.
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