ESSAY2.docx

Essay 2 ENGL-118Ho Gung Hiu

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INTRO + THESIS:

It is an obvious fact that social norms are a major part of the daily life, as an adult and even as a

teenager. Each and every one of us has to follow the norm, because social norms are a group of

cultures that the majority believe. As a result, they can either benefit or harm our society in

different ways. In other words, social norms help us to create order in our society, and they help

us to judge the appropriateness of our own behaviors. Because we have such a need for those

benefits, we may need to face prejudice if we break the norms. In fact, this tendency to reject

norm breakers is part of the problem created by social norms. Precisely, social norms cause

problems like: create friction for change and affect our judgment.

FIRST BENEFIT:

First and foremost, social norms help us to maintain stability in our society. For example, norm

makes us to wait in line without having a staff to tell us to line up. Saul McLeod is a psychology

lecture at university of Manchester. In his article called “Social Roles”, which addressed the

benefit of having social norms, McLeod argues that social norms can create order in society. He

says, “it is difficult to see how human society could operate without them. How would we know

the right ways to behave? How would we know that what to expect in a particular social

situation? The short answer is that we wouldn’t” (McLeod 1). Also, in his article “The norms of

social roles and conformity”. He mentioned an experiment, which was done by a social

psychologist who named Phillip Zimbardo in 1973, studied the norms between prisoner and

guard. He concludes, “The prisoners soon fell into their expected role, too, adopting prisoner-like

behavior. For example, they ‘told tales’ on each other to the guards, and they started taking the

prison rules very seriously” (McLeod 3). In other words, McLeod says that norm exists in an


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environment, people will adapt and follow the norm, which created an intangible force to prevent

people violate the norm. And that force will eventually become an order in our society. This is

significant because if norm doesn’t exist, and if there is no rule to restrict what we are supposed

not to do, then it will create a lot of chaos, like the lining up problem that I mentioned which

destroys the social harmony.

SECOND BENEFIT:

Another benefit of having social norms is that they help us to censor our behavior. For example,

even if you are angry with your parents, and you want to say foul language to your parents, you

wouldn’t do it, because your mind told you that is inappropriate. And why your mind will have a

such concept? It is because you are restricted by the norms. Adam Corner is the research

Director for the Climate Outreach & Information Network (COIN) and an Honorary Research

Fellow in the School of Psychology, Cardiff University. In his article called “Social Norm

Strategies Do Work-but with Risks”, which talks about the relationship between behavior and

social norms. He argues that social norms help us to judge the appropriateness of our own

behavior. He says, “In laboratory studies and other, more practical settings, providing people

with evidence of what others around them are doing has been shown to have a significant effect

on behavior” (Corner 2). Another people who shares this point of view is Saul McLeod, in his

article “Social Roles”, he says “there are norms defining appropriate behavior for every social

group. For example, students, neighbors and patients in a hospital are all aware of the norms

governing behavior” (McLeod 1). In other words, both authors agree that, social norms will

remind individual what they should or should not do, which foster people to think twice before


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they act. This is significant because if norm does not exist in our world, we won’t judge our

behavior, then it will create tons of conflicts which can be avoided easily. Just as you couldn't

tell what is wrong with your face without using a mirror, you won’t know what you should or

should not do if norm does not exist in your mind.

THE CONSEQUENCE OF BREAKING SOCIAL NORMS

As a consequence, people breaking the norms will suffer from prejudice. For example, in India,

eating food with hands is extremely common and appropriate. In contrast, using tableware to eat

is the norms that western society advocates, therefore, if you use hands to eat steak in a

restaurant, you will be labeled as unhygienic, uneducated and crazy. One place we see this is in a

novel called ‘The Stranger’ by Albert Camus. This novel is about a man who has a trouble

following social norms. At one point the main character was counselling with his attorney. And

even though he was willing to cooperate with his attorney, his attorney hates him because of his

odd behavior in his mother's funeral. Meursault says, “[the lawyer] asked me if he could say that

that day I had held back my natural feelings. I said, ‘No, because it’s not true.’ He gave me a

strange look, as if he found me slightly disgusting” (Camus 65). Another moment that shares this

point of view is the accusation that made by his prosecutor: even though there is not enough

evidence to charge him with this murder, the prosecutor used his odd behavior as his evidence to

charge the main character. The prosecutor says, “I accuse this man of burying his mother with

crime in his heart!” (Camus 96). In other words, these two examples tell us that in our society,

people follow the norms no matter they are good or not. Therefore, if a person broke the norms,

people who follow the norms will give him a hard time because they have to do something to


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protect the norms that they believe. This draws a significant impact on our society because of the

people who are willing to follow the norms also mean that they agree the norms are always right.

But this is not always true, sometimes the norms are wrong, and when people broke those norms,

he still needs to suffer from the negative actions toward him.

FIRST PROBLEM:

One challenge of having social norms is that they will create unnecessary restrictions for our

actions. For example, even if we want to tell a person that he made an error, we can’t tell them

directly because this is rude in our society. Therefore, we have to tell them euphemistically,

which is less effective to deliver our real message. One place we can see this is in the novel ‘The

Stranger’. At one point, the main character felt embarrassed for not willing to unscrew the casket

even though he has the right for not doing that. The book says, “He was quiet, and I was

embarrassed because I felt I shouldn’t have said that” (Camus 20). Another moment that

supports this idea is the conversation between the main character and his girlfriend. Even though

they want to go out and have a date, the atmosphere got destroyed by the fact that the main

character was in mourning. Meursault said, “I told her Maman had died. She wanted to know

how long ago, so I said, “Yesterday.” She gave a little start, but didn’t say anything” (Camus 20).

In other words, both examples say if our action conflicts with the social norms, then our action

will be limited, even if it is logically right. It is a huge challenge for our society, because social

norms supposed to act like a tool to help us to create order in our society and guide our action.

However, sometimes the relationship between society and the social norms got inverted. More


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often than not, social norms restricted our flexibility and limited our responds in different

situations.

Second Challenge:

Another challenge of having social norms is that they will affect our judgment. For example,

showing your tattoo in a job interview may affect your image on your interviewer, even though a

tattoo doesn’t reflect your ability, but in our society, the tattoo is often considered as a symbol of

rebellion. One place we can see this is in the novel. At one point the main character was on trial

of a murder. The prosecutor used Meursault’s odd behavior as the evidence to charge him, even

though his behavior doesn’t have anything to deal with the crime. The prosecutor says, “the same

man who, the day after his mother died was indulging in the most shameful debauchery killed a

man for the most trivial of reasons and did so in order to settle an affair of unspeakable vice”

(Camus 96). Another example, which shares this point of view is in our society. It is a norm that

we use bookends and files to store our documents. In contrast, some people actually prefer

stacking their document in their workplace because they find that is helpful for them to find

things that they want. However, for those who prefer this way, often make people feel that they

are lazy and don’t take their job seriously. In other words, both examples say that for the people

who follow the norms often use the norms as a model to shape the norm breakers. And during

this process, misjudgment may occur due to the fact that norms are not always true. The is a

serious problem, because if people only judge people based on the norms that they trust without

thinking the logic behind the problem, then to shape others behavior may bring negative

feedback to our society. Just as you couldn’t determine whether an answer is correct or not if you


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just listen to others say and expect your decision is always right, we can’t judge people only

based on the norms and expect the our judgment is always right.

Conclusion:

It is a solid fact that social norms can bring benefits to our society. Without social norms, our

society won’t have such high stability, and people will make more mistakes because there is no

mechanism to help us judge our behavior. However, social norm is a double edge sword. Getting

too much help from the norms will hinder our creativity and affect our judgment. Therefore,

society should strike a balance on social norms to prevent the norms controlling us rather than

controlling the norms.

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ESSAY2.docx