Blog post #6

 Display rules are a social norm that helps us to dictate how and when we express certain emotions, and these norms typically vary across cultures. Canadian culture, for example, expects norms of politeness and kindness, and in certain social settings people are expected to remain calm and quiet. This is what I expected to be the norm of most social life, but I didn't realize that it is different in certain cultures. For example, I visited Greece a few years ago, and the display rules are much different. In Canada walking down the street, store owners stay in their stores or put signs in their windows to attract customers. However, in Greece, store owners loudly advertise outside of their stores, attracting as much attention to them as possible.

Building on this, ritualized displays are culture-specific expressions that are used to give a certain social message. This ritual might be culture specific, and appear strange or unusual for people from other cultures. For example, in Canada, we might say "sorry" at the slightest inconvenience, or even in a situations where an apology isn't necessary. Or, when I go to Tim Horton's, I might ask for a double-double, which someone from a culture other than Canada would not understand, but any Canadian would understand what a double double refers to (a coffee with double cream and double sugar).


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