It’s not fun to stand out in a crowd, eyes staring at you down, making comments about you, the way you dress, look, the way people think about you. Everyone has at least once had an experience where they were the spotlight of attention, and although there are many different experiences with being the spotlight, we can all agree that one of the emotions was fear and/or anxiety.
Well, that’s exactly what the Violate a Norm Day in CIS Psychology did and experienced. People had gathered around with things that stood out to society like an open backpack, bringing things that aren’t normal, dressing up differently, and such. The purpose of this day was to see how people reacted to these abnormal concepts and why people made these reactions.
Makenna Weege ‘26, brought a life sized plastic skeleton to school to gather people’s reactions and feelings about her violation object, “My ego did take the best of me but in the day of, I was in the parking lot and I was regretting my decision already, people were pointing at me, asking weird questions, and it made me feel bad.” There were other reactions that weren’t so bad as well, such as assumptions of the spirit of halloween. In psychology, this is called conformity, to alter your emotions to fit into the crowd, even if it doesn’t align with your beliefs, and these reactions show a break of conformity. Weege was hesitated at first when asked if she would do this again,
“Yes and no, I would do this again, with a different item, to see different reactions of people. This made me realize how much people try to fit into the crowd, just to not be judged by others. It’s crazy.”
Erica Mauk ‘26, also had similar reactions from people. What she did for her violation was wearing a winter coat and gloves throughout the school day, including during class. “I felt pretty embarrassed, especially because the gloves made it difficult to write and drew a lot of attention.” Mauk received comments such as, “Wow, are you cold or something?” But this didn’t mind her too much, she expressed that she did like to wear the jacket in her colder classes, “If I could change one thing about that day, I would choose not to wear the gloves I did, because they were really hard to write in, which made the whole experience even harder than it had to be.”
Why do we try to fit into this box of expectations, is it just to not be judged? What’s so wrong with showing your difference, to show a sense of individuality within a crowd? We have this fear of comments because let’s be honest, this is everyone’s first time living, no one knows what to do, so when we look in a group that all does the same things, we assume that they are doing the right thing. It’s human nature, we feel the need to do the right things, otherwise we take moments like standing out, as the wrong thing to do.
It’s never easy showing a sense of individually, especially when you can’t control it with things like ethnicity, style, hobbies, and such. But would you rather live in a world where everyone is the same or in a world you get to enjoy in, in the rules you have for yourself, not what others tell you to do.
