Anticipatory socialization is the process, facilitated by social interactions, in which non-group-members learn to take on the values and standards of groups that they aspire to join, so as to ease their entry into the group and help them interact competently once they have been accepted by it.
Sociologist Robert K. Merton first described the concept of anticipatory socialization in 1949. It is a process of social interaction through which people adapt to the norms and values of a group that they want to join shortly. This process helps the people to understand the values and standards of the group, and their social interaction improved which ease their assimilation with the group members.
