Breaching Assignment

How do we as sociologists determine what are acceptable behaviors or

norms in our society? One way to discover what these appropriate norms and
behaviors are is by upsetting the daily social interactions that we have with
other members in society. What I mean by this is, taking every day
interactions which are taken for granted and breaking them apart like you
are an outsider looking in. Harold Garfinkle, a famous sociologist, who
specialized in ethnomethodology found that one way to uncover norms and
behaviors is through breaching experiments. Breaching experiments break
social norms and behaviors in acts of deviance, which then cause discomfort
by those experiencing and witnessing the behavior, thus showing that
society values these norms and behaviors that are being broken. Breaching
experiments have made their appearance in the media in recent years with
shows like Impractical Jokers and Betty Whites Off Their Rockers. For this
assignment, students will use a sociological theory to guide their experiment.

Students will be put into groups of 3-4. Students will use the symbolic
interactionism theory to guide their experiment. In groups, students will go
to three different restaurants of their choosing during lunch or dinner time.
One student will cut to the front of the line and try to order food, while the
other students take field notes on what they observe. Students should vary
the gender of the line jumper at least one of the restaurants. Students should
also have the line jumper use crutches at one restaurant. (I will have a pair
of crutches for students to borrow for this experiment) Students will be
expected to answer the following questions:

How did the people in the line behind your group member react when
he/she cut in front of them? Pay close attention to their body language.
How did the staff at the restaurant react when he/she cut in front of
other customers?
From this experiment, what can you conclude about the importance of
social norms and behaviors to social interactions?

Due: Students will be expected to write up a synopsis about their findings.

Students can choose to write the paper individually or as a group. Students
will be evaluated by showing their understanding of why breaching
experiments are beneficial to sociology. Students will also be evaluated by
their ability to frame their findings with a symbolic interactionism lens.
Research papers should include a literature review, theoretical section,
methods section, findings section, conclusion, and references section. Papers
should be 3-5 pages double spaced.

***IMPORTANT***
This assignment is not meant to embarrass or harm any potential subjects in
this experiment. You are NOT authorized to videotape this experiment. If
conflict arises, do not continue the experiment.