Breaking Social Norms in United Arab Emirates

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Table of Contents

Method
Findings
Analysis

Method

As the citizens of United Arab Emirates, we do not take pictures and post them on social media. This behavior is against the core ideologies of the Arabian culture. In order to break this norm, I decided to conduct an experiment whereby I requested people to take self-pictures with me randomly. Importantly, I targeted ladies since they are the ones who consider the undertaking as complete disrespect for the country’s culture. During the experiment, I waited for people as they came from Dalma mall near the cinema area and asked them to take the picture in an impromptu. Although a lot of work had been done in this experiment, I changed the experiment because the participants gave a negative feedback. As a result, I sought to conduct another experiment whereby I requested strangers to let me taste their food. Understandably, the social norm requires everybody to respect the privacy of other people. However, requesting for permission to taste strangers’ food is breaking this social norm because it facilitates infringement of people’s privacy.

Findings

When I approached an Egyptian family, the mother required me to tell them the dish I wanted to taste and promised to order it for me. After contending that I wanted to taste the dish before making an order, the mother kept quiet, but the father allowed me to taste any dish they ordered. For the second group, they got confused and then agreed to let me tasted their food. When I informed them that it was an experiment, they did not mind but indicated that it was an odd thing. The third person was an Arabian male aged 30 years who refused to let me taste his food completely.

After telling him that it was an experiment, he was not comfortable with the activity. However, he said that he could have allowed me if his wife had accompanied him. The fourth group was a USA family which was enjoying ice-creams. When I made my request, the mother told me to ask the man who was serving the ice-creams. I told her that I was embarrassed to ask him, but she asked why I did not have a problem when requesting them. After telling them that it was an experiment, the mother informed me that they had started feeling uncomfortable because they needed privacy. Indeed, the mother was clearly and evidently embarrassed by my request. She did not feel comfortable when I infringed her family’s privacy despite the fact that it was an experiment.

The fifth group comprised of three local males who were taking a meal in Wahab restaurant. They openly allowed me to taste their food and stated that they could pay for the bill. When I told them that it was an experiment, they said it was not a big deal. The sixth group comprised of four local women who were taking a meal in Alfanar restaurant. In this case, they did not allow me to taste their meals, but offered to order food for me. After informing them about the true nature of the exercise, they said it was not wrong and insisted to pay for the bill. The seventh group comprised of students from Zayed University who were enjoying their meal at Caffe Restaurant. They did not allow me to taste their food from the plates, but one of them took a small plate, put some food, and gave it to me. After informing them that it was an experiment, they told me that they did not allow strangers to put folks on their plates. The last group comprised of a single female student aged 20 years. She did not mind letting me taste her food, but after telling her that it was an experiment she was shocked.

Analysis

Resistance to Change of Social Norms

From the reactions incurred during the experiment, it was evident that people resist undertakings that may compromise or seek to change the social norms. In essence, they tend to rebel activities that portray a negative picture in society. If something is regarded as an immoral behavior, members of the society will not agree to participate. For example, during my experiment, the Egyptian man refused to let me taste her food because he thought it was odd. In the common way of doing things, people require privacy when they are eating, and they do not entertain infringement. As a result, the man whom I approached had absorbed this general mentality that taking allowing a stranger to infringe privacy is not good. Accordingly, he considered me as a weird person because they expect everybody to follow the societal stipulations. The mother to the American family portrayed an identical behavior. In her case, she thought that I was nagging and did not expect me to taste people’s food because it was not a commonality. In fact, she asked why I did not go to the man who was selling the ice-creams. This implied that people consider privacy as a crucial aspect, and the society does not encourage infringement of that virtue. As a result, those people I approached expected me to respect their privacy and leave them alone. Due to this social norm, they resisted and rebelled against my pursuit to taste the food.

Collective Thinking

From this exercise, it is evident that social norms create collective thinking in the society. Essentially, people do not question the reasons as to why some activities are prohibited or allowed. They just choose to follow the social norms because the community has recommended them. This is based on the first experiment whereby all the reasons provided by the participants did not reveal substantial facts against taking photos. Instead, they were merely based on the societal opinions. This implies that the society comprises of a group of people who adopt certain behaviors collectively. These behaviors are upheld in a manner that portrays the society as a single unit. In addition, they follow them in order to create a good image of the society and protect its morals. Objectively, it is not wrong to take photos with strangers as long as the requested individuals agree.

Expectations in Society

The society has created social norms that set some expectation in accordance to gender and age. For example, it was evident that people do not allow strangers to taste their food. As such, the entire society expects everyone to behave in correspondence to that norm. When people contravene this norm, they act against those expectations. For instance, when I requested the members of an American family to taste their food, the mother said that she did not feel comfortable because the family needed privacy.

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