Minnesota Nice - Social Norms

Social Norms

Playwright and corporate communications consultant Syl Jones suggested that Minnesota nice is not entirely about being "nice" but is more about keeping up appearances, maintaining the social order, and keeping people in their place. He relates these social norms to the literary work of Danish-Norwegian novelist, Aksel Sandemose, Jante Law, and more generally, Scandinavian culture. Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion discusses "Wobegonics", the supposed language of Minnesotans which includes "no confrontational verbs or statements of strong personal preference".

Scandinavia is a "low context culture" whereas Minnesota nice is characteristic of a high context culture. Presumably, the immigrants from Norway and Sweden adapted their low context Jante Law to the seemingly similar but very different Southern United States high context polite society, forming the unique Midwest culture amongst Western cultures that is called "Minnesota Nice." The integration of Jute Law and Polite Society, epitomized by the rules of a Southern belle, likely occurred when the cultures meet and merged during the pre-American Civil War migration of pro-slavery southern farmers north into the midwest territory (for example, documented in the well known Bleeding Kansas conflict).