Observing Social Behavior in the National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art (NGA) is home to some of the most prolific works of art in the world. Approximately four million people visit the NGA each year to admire the collection of nearly 130,000 exhibits making it the sixth most popular art museum in the world (Lowe, 2013). The amount of foot traffic the museum experiences provides the ideal environment to observe people as they move through the museum. The purpose of this article is to observe human behavior in a social context. A location in the NGA West Building was chosen for its vantage point from which to watch people as they walked through the museum. People were studied for twenty-five minutes and observations were conducted to examine their behavior, reactions and interactions with other individuals. The twenty-five minute observation time established the behavior of individuals at the NGA. The second part of this observation was to break a social norm and observe people's reaction when the norm was violated. This article is a detailed account of observations made at the NGA and examines these interactions using sociological concepts. The NGA has three distinct areas, the West Building, the East Building and the Sculpture Garden. Gallery 83 of the West Building was used to observe people for twenty-five minutes. This particular gallery was used for the artwork it contained. The room contains twenty-one pieces by artists such as Van Gogh, Degas and Gauguin. The notoriety of these artists has made this room very popular. There are three doors that people can use as entry or exit. The size of the room allowed for inconspicuous observations of the individuals watching… middle of paper… because it breaks the social norm. This is why people were initially surprised by the interaction. In this case it could be considered a positive deviant action. The results of this forced interaction left the interacted individuals smiling and visibly happier. Social controls can be formal or informal and are what enforce norms. Social controls indicate that a museum is a quiet place and there should be little interaction between people there. However, following the deviant action a positive sanction occurred. Positive sanctions are a positive reaction to compliance with a social norm. This was an interesting and unexpected observation when breaking a social norm. The observations in this article have provided a unique perspective on how culture and socialization determine behavior in society. Works Cited dfasdf asdf sdfasdf sd f