Subway courtesy

Milgram's Students engaged in his subway research project demonstrated the importance of norms in human behaviors because students felt weird and embarassed asking for someone's seat when they are in perfect condition. Some norms of the subway for asking for seats are if you are elderly, have a physical disability, or have a child but when people have to ask for a seat it makes them give in to the reason and lie about why they want it. The students kept making up their own reasoning as to why they wanted the seat. This was all caused by the discomfort and guilt of going against the norms even though there are no real consequences involved in asking for a seat. Society's norms fight against our own behavior and individuals tend to follow it. Another example would be waiting in line, asking someone to go in front of them. This will cause them to feel the same emotions as the subway experiment as it is going against the norms "first come first serve".