Social Norms On Seat Selection At Movie Theaters
Sociology 301
9 March 2005 The Impact of Social Norms on Seat Selection at Movie Theaters. Where is the perfect seat? Is it near the front so that the screen fills your visual field? Is it in the back so that in the dark the screen is at a natural height for the eyes? Or is it in the center of the movie theater where the speakers are at the perfect distance to optimize the sound? Only the very first person to enter an empty theater has the opportunity to make a seating decision based solely on visual and sound preferences. Every person entering the theater thereafter is subject not only to their own theater experience preferences but more importantly by the seating selections of all the people already seated. There are many norms for attending a movie theater. These include explicit norms, norms that have been openly written or spoken (Straker, 1) and implicit norms, norms that are understood but not precisely recorded (Kornblum, 59). Explicit or formal norms have clear rules for punishment. Creating a disruption during the movie is grounds for ejection from the theater. Most theaters openly state during the previews that cell phones need to be turned off and that talking should be kept to a minimum. Implicit or informal norms regulate seat selection …show more content…
More specifically, how would a person react if a stranger sat in the adjacent seat in a nearly empty movie theater? As a regular movie theater patron I evaluated my own reaction were I put in the proposed situation. If a stranger sat beside me in a theater where there were numerous other seats available, I believe I would get up and move to a different seat. I posed this question to several other people and each replied they would be uncomfortable and relocate to another seat. I decided to break this informal norm and observe whether the affected person reacted as
9 March 2005 The Impact of Social Norms on Seat Selection at Movie Theaters. Where is the perfect seat? Is it near the front so that the screen fills your visual field? Is it in the back so that in the dark the screen is at a natural height for the eyes? Or is it in the center of the movie theater where the speakers are at the perfect distance to optimize the sound? Only the very first person to enter an empty theater has the opportunity to make a seating decision based solely on visual and sound preferences. Every person entering the theater thereafter is subject not only to their own theater experience preferences but more importantly by the seating selections of all the people already seated. There are many norms for attending a movie theater. These include explicit norms, norms that have been openly written or spoken (Straker, 1) and implicit norms, norms that are understood but not precisely recorded (Kornblum, 59). Explicit or formal norms have clear rules for punishment. Creating a disruption during the movie is grounds for ejection from the theater. Most theaters openly state during the previews that cell phones need to be turned off and that talking should be kept to a minimum. Implicit or informal norms regulate seat selection …show more content…
More specifically, how would a person react if a stranger sat in the adjacent seat in a nearly empty movie theater? As a regular movie theater patron I evaluated my own reaction were I put in the proposed situation. If a stranger sat beside me in a theater where there were numerous other seats available, I believe I would get up and move to a different seat. I posed this question to several other people and each replied they would be uncomfortable and relocate to another seat. I decided to break this informal norm and observe whether the affected person reacted as