Expectancy Violations Theory

     Jackass. Bad Grandpa. Impractical Jokers. What do they all have in common? Each of these shows or movies focus on violating social norms.  Although some of the stuff they do can be perceived as plain stupid, they entertain the audience.  It makes us question what about violating social norms is so fascinating.  Perhaps us watching are not doing it ourselves.  We are not the ones feeling embarrassed.  Believe it or not, what they are doing and the audience reactions form communication.  This is known as the Expectancy Violations Theory of Judee Burgoon.

     The Expectancy Violations Theory examines different boundaries within communication.  The conversational distances include the intimate, personal, social, and public zone.  Each of the distances are studied by Burgoon to determine how people use the space; this is called proxemics.  Then, this begs the question what happens if one of these zones are violated.  Depending on the context of the situation, it can either show attractiveness or outgoing behavior of the person or the exact opposite as a creep.  In context of the entertainment I mentioned in the beginning, they are usually perceived as silly, creepy, and weird by the people in public.  The people watching from their television however might have a different reaction because they are at a whole different distance than those people.  It makes you wonder if I were in the same situation as the person first hand experiencing it, would I have the same reaction?  According to Burgoon, probably not.  Distance matters.