Final answer:
Social norms set the expectation for acceptable behavior within a culture, including what is considered moral and ethical. Violating these social norms, especially mores, can result in serious consequences ranging from social shunning to legal action.
Step-by-step explanation:
The term that refers to a set of beliefs that sets a moral code regarding what behavior is acceptable to a culture is C. Social norms. Social norms are the laws, morals, values, religious beliefs, customs, fashions, rituals, and all of the cultural rules that govern social life. These shared beliefs, values, and practices must be learned by participants in a culture, and they outline expectations for behavior. Normative ethics, on the other hand, focuses on establishing norms and standards of moral conduct to effectively guide people's behavior within their society. Violating mores, which are norms that embody a group's moral views, can have serious consequences and can elicit informal sanctions like shunning, or formal sanctions such as legal action in the case of severe violations like homicide.