How do you decide about normality?

8 Comments

When you vote on this site and decide whether something is normal, what do you usually take into consideration that makes you decide if it is normal or not? If you have different criteria for different posts, please think about the criterion which you use most often.

my personal experience or the experience of people in my social circle 4
statistical distribution over the population 5
other - please comment 2
I do not really think about it 6
my personal opinions (if I accept or tolerate it, it is normal) 10
public opinion or opinions of authorities (scientists, etc) 1
some higher principles (religion, abstract ethics...) 1
biological functions, biological norms, "natural law" 4
just my feelings or my own preferences, tastes... 10
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Comments ( 8 )
  • [Old Memory]
    11 years ago

    It depends on what they're looking for.

    If they want to know if it's common then I'll tell them if it's something I do or not. If they want "normal" then I'll tell them if what I believe they're doing is destructive or not.

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  • Wendell
    11 years ago

    Well I have standards

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  • howaminotmyself
    11 years ago

    Sometimes I base it on what I percieve as normal. But I also know that normal for me is very weird to some people. I try to take that into consideration when making a comment. And sometimes I like to point out the difference.

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  • NotFloydzie
    11 years ago

    Based on what I've experienced, seen, talked about, read, learned, ect, ect. When I rate something 0% normal it's only my opinion. But again, there's a lot of people here who would find things I find normal abnormal and vice-versa.

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  • bananaface
    11 years ago

    Well since there isn't really a universal definition of "normal", my answers are obviously effected by my perception of what's normal. It also depends on the post. It's a mix between a lot of things. I avoid letting my taste/preferences effect it, and I do try to be objective (not sure how good I am at doing that, though:P).

    To be honest, though, I don't spend too much time thinking about it. A lot of the time I don't even tell the OP whether their behaviour is abnormal or not. And whenever I leave my opinion in a comment, I try to make sure that it can't be read as anything other than my opinion, because I'd hate for anyone to think it was a fact. It clearly isn't.

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  • NoBoundaries
    7 years ago

    Well, comparing one's penis to another seems... OH! You meant..

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  • Wüstenfuchs
    11 years ago

    Normalcy, at least in this category, is based on the collective, for sure. As far as thought processes go, it's still up to debate on nature vs. nurture, so the majority is what we're stuck with.

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  • dappled
    11 years ago

    Varies entirely based on more factors than I could describe here. If you want to pick any answer of mine (apart from this one), I'll probably be able to tell you what was going through my mind and why I judged something normal or not normal.

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