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Breaking Social Norm

The social norm that I decided to go with was asking for food in the school cafeteria. I would seat next to strangers without asking and ask if I could bite their food. I recorded the number of people who said yes and those that said no and how people acted. When I first as a stranger on people’s tables without asking most gave me a side eye. This was because there were other tables in the cafeteria that were empty and one would wonder why I would invade a table and just start a random conversation. When I asked if I could bite their food while most accepted, they later did not eat the food again and most left or took another table and ordered for fresh food. Only two people whom I asked for a bite of their food gave it to me and continued eating without feeling bothered. The rest either left the restraint without touching the food again or ordered for another fresh meal.

Eventually, the manager may have noticed that I was a nuisance and I was asked to leave the establishment. However, I had learned a few things from breaking this social norm. First, people often like personal spaces including sitting alone or with their close friends in the restaurant. When a stranger join in the table it is likely to impede them from continuing with their conversation because you’re a stranger. Another observation was that asking people if you could bite their food and then returning it to them does not auger well with most. This may be because one, a person is a total stranger and thus biting people’s food may be unhygienic for example one may think of diseases that may be contracted. This is why most people that gave me their food to bite left me to complete it or ordered for another one