S(situation)
In social life, sometimes we might encounter or be put in an embarrassing situation. We all know the feeling, awkward and uncomfortable. We freeze up and look away, as if trying to find a cave and escape.
Do you ever have the experience? You might have this awkward feeling when watching TV with your parents, especially a love scene of canoodling appearing on the screen.
How can we avoid these situations? In fact, there are many mysterious rules that govern our behavior. Mysterious rules, put it simply, social rules, so to speak, because they are unspoken but understood in our daily lives. We all obey them, especially when dealing with strangers. It helps make social interaction among people going smoothly.
C(conflict)
Social rules exist in our lives everywhere. For example, on a bus station, it is usual and normal to talk about weather and seasons, but it is obviously inappropriate to talk about personal affairs, like how much they earned.
If we don't know social rules, we could be considered rude and impolite, and it will affect our life and career. So we have to learn about them.
Q(question)
Even though we know there are social rules that control our behavior, but they are implicit, unspoken, and not written down anywhere. How can we find out?
Scientists are so smart that they use breach experiments to learn more about social rules. It is a common approach for psychologists and sociologists doing research, on social issues in particular.
Participants break the rule on purpose, in the meantime, scientists looked at their reactions. By watching their behaviors, a sociologist could identify and study social rules in depth.
An important breach experiment is like this: You get on an almost empty train carriage, and sit just next to the person on board, instead of a distance away. To see the person’s behavior, does he change the seat, move carriage or get off the train completely?
We now know there is a safe distance between each other in our social life. In extreme case like some Nordic countries, which have been ranked as the happiest countries, people there are lonely and sedate, they would stand away rather than sit next to somebody.
A(answer)
The experiments helped scientists summarize some social rules in a more clearer way. If we learn more about them and control our behavior accordingly, it could help avoid many awkward situations.
There is an old saying: Once in Rome, do as Romans do. When we visit other countries, contact foreign people, it is critical to get familiar with local social rules and try not to make mistakes due to negligence and innocence. Respect and abide by local social rules is the first thing when going abroad.
