What Are the Social Norms Inside a Laundromat?

What are the social norms inside a Laundromat? Personally, I have not spent much time inside a Laundromat. Prior to my research I was unaware of how to conduct myself in a Laundromat. As a result, I choose to study social norms because I was in an unfamiliar location. Unlike a location in which I have spent a lot of time at, I did not know what was considered normal behavior in a Laundromat.
Social norms can be defined as “set standards of correctness and appropriateness, thus guiding participants’ actions in social practice and serving as reasons for justifications and as ground for critique” (Hannes and Schmidt 2013). Essentially, social norms are a set of rules that dictate how people should act in certain situations. Social norms have a number of common characteristics. First of all, “social norms circulate within specific groups” (Morrow 2014). What is considered a social norm for one group of people is not necessarily the same for an unrelated group. For example, it might be acceptable to eat pizza with your hands in America; however in Italy the norm is to use a knife and fork. Secondly, “social norms apply only to specific contexts” (Hannes and Schmidt 2013). The context decides whether an action follows of breaks a social norm. There is nothing wrong with bringing a sack lunch to work. On the other hand, bringing a sack lunch to a dinner party would probably be considered rude. Lastly, social norms are socially constructed (Hannes and Schmidt 2013). A child is not born with the knowledge of social norms. Instead they must be taught them. This helps to explain why it is not despicable for a small child to point at some guy with spots in his hair and very loudly call him “Cheetah Head”. The child must be ...

... middle of paper ...

...g that they have influenced our behavior. In a new situation, we have not had time to learn the social norms. By going to a Laundromat, a place where I rarely visit, I was able to identify some of the social norms.

REFERENCES
Morrow, Paul. 2014. "Mass Atrocity and Manipulation of Social Norms." Social theory & practice 40(2):255-280.
Rakoczy, Hannes, and Marco F. H. Schmidt . 2013. "The Early Ontogeny of Social Norms." Child development perspectives 7(1):17-21.
Rudolf von Rohr, Claudia, Judith Burkart, and Carel Schaik. 2011. "Evolutionary precursors of social norms in chimpanzees: a new approach." Biology & philosophy 26(1):1-30.
United States Census Bureau. 2014. “State & County QuickFacts: Richland (city), Washington.” U.S. Department of Commerce. March 27. Retrieved April 10, 2014 (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/53/5358235.html).