Russo Food Choice and Social Norms: Module 6

One situation that I fell into a social norm was the day of the Super Bowl. My roommates and I invited people over to watch the game. When we were figuring out what food to get, we fell under the social norm that everybody orders pizza and wings to watch the Super Bowl. This is the typical food for any occasion that somebody invites people over to watch a football game. Ever since I was young, pizza and wings have always been the unofficial party food. Pizza and wings are not nutritious, but they fall under the social input of good tasting food. The poor nutritional values of pizza and wings are never thought of when being consumed. Another social input they categorize under is the socialization that occurs as people share this food because it is associated with parties and hangouts.

Ordering food such as pizza and wings for watching sporting events or even hanging out with friends is directly tied to obesity. We live in a sports-dominated culture. Americans love to hang out, watch TV and eat. We do this very often and consume copious amounts of food every time. In America, this is a big issue. People tend to order food, which is usually unhealthy, instead of making more nutritious meals for watching sporting events. Ordering food is much easier and convenient than self-cooking. Unfortunately, I believe we as a country tend to suffer from another societal norm which would be laziness. Nobody wants to put effort into anything, so they pick the easiest option. In this scenario, picking up the phone and having food delivered to the door portrays the societal issue of laziness. Laziness ultimately leads to obesity.

Food Diagram