Experimenting with Social Norms

Experimenting with Social Norms

Author: Jean Ensminger

Publisher: Russell Sage Foundation

Published: 2014-10-22

Total Pages: 493

ISBN-13: 1610448405

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Questions about the origins of human cooperation have long puzzled and divided scientists. Social norms that foster fair-minded behavior, altruism and collective action undergird the foundations of large-scale human societies, but we know little about how these norms develop or spread, or why the intensity and breadth of human cooperation varies among different populations. What is the connection between social norms that encourage fair dealing and economic growth? How are these social norms related to the emergence of centralized institutions? Informed by a pioneering set of cross-cultural data, Experimenting with Social Norms advances our understanding of the evolution of human cooperation and the expansion of complex societies. Editors Jean Ensminger and Joseph Henrich present evidence from an exciting collaboration between anthropologists and economists. Using experimental economics games, researchers examined levels of fairness, cooperation, and norms for punishing those who violate expectations of equality across a diverse swath of societies, from hunter-gatherers in Tanzania to a small town in rural Missouri. These experiments tested individuals’ willingness to conduct mutually beneficial transactions with strangers that reap rewards only at the expense of taking a risk on the cooperation of others. The results show a robust relationship between exposure to market economies and social norms that benefit the group over narrow economic self-interest. Levels of fairness and generosity are generally higher among individuals in communities with more integrated markets. Religion also plays a powerful role. Individuals practicing either Islam or Christianity exhibited a stronger sense of fairness, possibly because religions with high moralizing deities, equipped with ample powers to reward and punish, encourage greater prosociality. The size of the settlement also had an impact. People in larger communities were more willing to punish unfairness compared to those in smaller societies. Taken together, the volume supports the hypothesis that social norms evolved over thousands of years to allow strangers in more complex and large settlements to coexist, trade and prosper. Innovative and ambitious, Experimenting with Social Norms synthesizes an unprecedented analysis of social behavior from an immense range of human societies. The fifteen case studies analyzed in this volume, which include field experiments in Africa, South America, New Guinea, Siberia and the United States, are available for free download on the Foundation’s website:www.russellsage.org.


Book Synopsis Experimenting with Social Norms by : Jean Ensminger

Download or read book Experimenting with Social Norms written by Jean Ensminger and published by Russell Sage Foundation. This book was released on 2014-10-22 with total page 493 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Questions about the origins of human cooperation have long puzzled and divided scientists. Social norms that foster fair-minded behavior, altruism and collective action undergird the foundations of large-scale human societies, but we know little about how these norms develop or spread, or why the intensity and breadth of human cooperation varies among different populations. What is the connection between social norms that encourage fair dealing and economic growth? How are these social norms related to the emergence of centralized institutions? Informed by a pioneering set of cross-cultural data, Experimenting with Social Norms advances our understanding of the evolution of human cooperation and the expansion of complex societies. Editors Jean Ensminger and Joseph Henrich present evidence from an exciting collaboration between anthropologists and economists. Using experimental economics games, researchers examined levels of fairness, cooperation, and norms for punishing those who violate expectations of equality across a diverse swath of societies, from hunter-gatherers in Tanzania to a small town in rural Missouri. These experiments tested individuals’ willingness to conduct mutually beneficial transactions with strangers that reap rewards only at the expense of taking a risk on the cooperation of others. The results show a robust relationship between exposure to market economies and social norms that benefit the group over narrow economic self-interest. Levels of fairness and generosity are generally higher among individuals in communities with more integrated markets. Religion also plays a powerful role. Individuals practicing either Islam or Christianity exhibited a stronger sense of fairness, possibly because religions with high moralizing deities, equipped with ample powers to reward and punish, encourage greater prosociality. The size of the settlement also had an impact. People in larger communities were more willing to punish unfairness compared to those in smaller societies. Taken together, the volume supports the hypothesis that social norms evolved over thousands of years to allow strangers in more complex and large settlements to coexist, trade and prosper. Innovative and ambitious, Experimenting with Social Norms synthesizes an unprecedented analysis of social behavior from an immense range of human societies. The fifteen case studies analyzed in this volume, which include field experiments in Africa, South America, New Guinea, Siberia and the United States, are available for free download on the Foundation’s website:www.russellsage.org.


Factorial Survey Experiments

Factorial Survey Experiments

Author: Katrin Auspurg

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Published: 2014-11-28

Total Pages: 246

ISBN-13: 1483324303

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Filling a gap in the literature of the field, Factorial Survey Experiments provides researchers with a practical guide to using the factorial survey method to assess respondents’ beliefs about the world, judgment principles, or decision rules through multi-dimensional stimuli (“vignettes”) that resemble real-life decision-making situations. Using insightful examples to illustrate their arguments, authors Katrin Auspurg and Thomas Hinz guide researchers through all relevant steps, including how to set up the factorial experimental design (drawing samples of vignettes and respondents), how to handle the practical challenges that must be mastered when an experimental plan with many different treatments is embedded in a survey format, and how to deal with questions of data analysis. In addition to providing the “how-tos” of designing factorial survey experiments, the authors cover recent developments of similar methods, such as conjoint analyses, choice experiments, and more advanced statistical tools.


Book Synopsis Factorial Survey Experiments by : Katrin Auspurg

Download or read book Factorial Survey Experiments written by Katrin Auspurg and published by SAGE Publications. This book was released on 2014-11-28 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Filling a gap in the literature of the field, Factorial Survey Experiments provides researchers with a practical guide to using the factorial survey method to assess respondents’ beliefs about the world, judgment principles, or decision rules through multi-dimensional stimuli (“vignettes”) that resemble real-life decision-making situations. Using insightful examples to illustrate their arguments, authors Katrin Auspurg and Thomas Hinz guide researchers through all relevant steps, including how to set up the factorial experimental design (drawing samples of vignettes and respondents), how to handle the practical challenges that must be mastered when an experimental plan with many different treatments is embedded in a survey format, and how to deal with questions of data analysis. In addition to providing the “how-tos” of designing factorial survey experiments, the authors cover recent developments of similar methods, such as conjoint analyses, choice experiments, and more advanced statistical tools.


Norms in the Wild

Norms in the Wild

Author: Cristina Bicchieri

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 0190622059

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Large scale behavioral interventions work in some social contexts, but fail in others. The book explains this phenomenon with diverse personal and social behavioral motives, guided by research in economics, psychology, and international consulting done with UNICEF. The book offers tested tools that mobilize mass media, community groups, and autonomous "first movers" (or trendsetters) to alter harmful collective behaviors.


Book Synopsis Norms in the Wild by : Cristina Bicchieri

Download or read book Norms in the Wild written by Cristina Bicchieri and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Large scale behavioral interventions work in some social contexts, but fail in others. The book explains this phenomenon with diverse personal and social behavioral motives, guided by research in economics, psychology, and international consulting done with UNICEF. The book offers tested tools that mobilize mass media, community groups, and autonomous "first movers" (or trendsetters) to alter harmful collective behaviors.


The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse

The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse

Author: H. Wesley Perkins

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2003-02-24

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 078796459X

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The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse offers educators, counselors, and clinicians a handbook for understanding and implementing a new and highly successful alternative to traditional methods for preventing substance abuse among young people. The proven "social norms" approach outlined in this book identifies young people's dramatic misperceptions about their peer norms and promotes accurate public reporting of actual positive norms that exist in all student populations. The contributors to this important book are the originators, pioneers, and active proponents of this new approach. Many of them have successfully applied the social norms approach in secondary and higher education settings and as a result have promoted healthier lifestyles among adolescents and young adults across the United States.


Book Synopsis The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse by : H. Wesley Perkins

Download or read book The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse written by H. Wesley Perkins and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2003-02-24 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse offers educators, counselors, and clinicians a handbook for understanding and implementing a new and highly successful alternative to traditional methods for preventing substance abuse among young people. The proven "social norms" approach outlined in this book identifies young people's dramatic misperceptions about their peer norms and promotes accurate public reporting of actual positive norms that exist in all student populations. The contributors to this important book are the originators, pioneers, and active proponents of this new approach. Many of them have successfully applied the social norms approach in secondary and higher education settings and as a result have promoted healthier lifestyles among adolescents and young adults across the United States.


The Complexity of Social Norms

The Complexity of Social Norms

Author: Maria Xenitidou

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2014-05-28

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 3319053086

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This book explores the view that normative behaviour is part of a complex of social mechanisms, processes and narratives that are constantly shifting. From this perspective, norms are not a kind of self-contained social object or fact, but rather an interplay of many things that we label as norms when we ‘take a snapshot’ of them at a particular instant. Further, this book pursues the hypothesis that considering the dynamic aspects of these phenomena sheds new light on them. The sort of issues that this perspective opens to exploration include: Of what is this complex we call a "social norm" composed of? How do new social norms emerge and what kind of circumstances might facilitate such an appearance? How context-specific are the norms and patterns of normative behaviour that arise? How do the cognitive and the social aspects of norms interact over time? How do expectations, beliefs and individual rationality interact with social norm complexes to effect behaviour? How does our social embeddedness relate to social constraint upon behaviour? How might the socio-cognitive complexes that we call norms be usefully researched?


Book Synopsis The Complexity of Social Norms by : Maria Xenitidou

Download or read book The Complexity of Social Norms written by Maria Xenitidou and published by Springer. This book was released on 2014-05-28 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the view that normative behaviour is part of a complex of social mechanisms, processes and narratives that are constantly shifting. From this perspective, norms are not a kind of self-contained social object or fact, but rather an interplay of many things that we label as norms when we ‘take a snapshot’ of them at a particular instant. Further, this book pursues the hypothesis that considering the dynamic aspects of these phenomena sheds new light on them. The sort of issues that this perspective opens to exploration include: Of what is this complex we call a "social norm" composed of? How do new social norms emerge and what kind of circumstances might facilitate such an appearance? How context-specific are the norms and patterns of normative behaviour that arise? How do the cognitive and the social aspects of norms interact over time? How do expectations, beliefs and individual rationality interact with social norm complexes to effect behaviour? How does our social embeddedness relate to social constraint upon behaviour? How might the socio-cognitive complexes that we call norms be usefully researched?


Norms and the Study of Language in Social Life

Norms and the Study of Language in Social Life

Author: Janus Mortensen

Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG

Published: 2022-03-21

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 1501511890

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Sociolinguistics and the social sciences more generally tend to take an interest in norms as central to social life. The importance of norms is easily discernible in the sociolinguistic canon, for instance in Labov’s definition of the speech community as ‘participation in a set of shared norms’ and Hymes’ concepts of ‘norms of interaction’ and ‘norms of interpretation’. Yet, while the notion of norms may play a central role in sociolinguistic theory, there is little explicit theoretical work around the notion of norms itself within the discipline. Instead, norms tend to be treated as conceptual primes – convenient building blocks, ready-made for sociolinguistic theorizing – rather than theoretical constructs in need of reflexive attention. The aim of this book is to assess and advance current understandings of norms as a theoretical construct and empirical object of research in the study of language in social life. The contributors approach the topic from a range of complementary disciplinary perspectives, including sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, EM/CA, socio-cognitive linguistics and pragmatics, to provide a multifaceted view of norms as a central concept in the study of language in social life.


Book Synopsis Norms and the Study of Language in Social Life by : Janus Mortensen

Download or read book Norms and the Study of Language in Social Life written by Janus Mortensen and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2022-03-21 with total page 261 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sociolinguistics and the social sciences more generally tend to take an interest in norms as central to social life. The importance of norms is easily discernible in the sociolinguistic canon, for instance in Labov’s definition of the speech community as ‘participation in a set of shared norms’ and Hymes’ concepts of ‘norms of interaction’ and ‘norms of interpretation’. Yet, while the notion of norms may play a central role in sociolinguistic theory, there is little explicit theoretical work around the notion of norms itself within the discipline. Instead, norms tend to be treated as conceptual primes – convenient building blocks, ready-made for sociolinguistic theorizing – rather than theoretical constructs in need of reflexive attention. The aim of this book is to assess and advance current understandings of norms as a theoretical construct and empirical object of research in the study of language in social life. The contributors approach the topic from a range of complementary disciplinary perspectives, including sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, EM/CA, socio-cognitive linguistics and pragmatics, to provide a multifaceted view of norms as a central concept in the study of language in social life.


The Social Animal

The Social Animal

Author: Elliot Aronson

Publisher:

Published: 1976

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13:

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Book Synopsis The Social Animal by : Elliot Aronson

Download or read book The Social Animal written by Elliot Aronson and published by . This book was released on 1976 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:


Why Humans Cooperate

Why Humans Cooperate

Author: Joseph Henrich

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2007-06-27

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9780198041177

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Cooperation among humans is one of the keys to our great evolutionary success. Natalie and Joseph Henrich examine this phenomena with a unique fusion of theoretical work on the evolution of cooperation, ethnographic descriptions of social behavior, and a range of other experimental results. Their experimental and ethnographic data come from a small, insular group of middle-class Iraqi Christians called Chaldeans, living in metro Detroit, whom the Henrichs use as an example to show how kinship relations, ethnicity, and culturally transmitted traditions provide the key to explaining the evolution of cooperation over multiple generations.


Book Synopsis Why Humans Cooperate by : Joseph Henrich

Download or read book Why Humans Cooperate written by Joseph Henrich and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007-06-27 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Cooperation among humans is one of the keys to our great evolutionary success. Natalie and Joseph Henrich examine this phenomena with a unique fusion of theoretical work on the evolution of cooperation, ethnographic descriptions of social behavior, and a range of other experimental results. Their experimental and ethnographic data come from a small, insular group of middle-class Iraqi Christians called Chaldeans, living in metro Detroit, whom the Henrichs use as an example to show how kinship relations, ethnicity, and culturally transmitted traditions provide the key to explaining the evolution of cooperation over multiple generations.


The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence

The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence

Author: Stephen G. Harkins

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 497

ISBN-13: 0199859876

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The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence restores this important field to its once preeminent position within social psychology. Editors Harkins, Williams, and Burger lead a team of leading scholars as they explore a variety of topics within social influence, seamlessly incorporating a range of analyses (including intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intragroup), and examine critical theories and the role of social influence in applied settings today.


Book Synopsis The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence by : Stephen G. Harkins

Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence written by Stephen G. Harkins and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Social Influence restores this important field to its once preeminent position within social psychology. Editors Harkins, Williams, and Burger lead a team of leading scholars as they explore a variety of topics within social influence, seamlessly incorporating a range of analyses (including intrapersonal, interpersonal, and intragroup), and examine critical theories and the role of social influence in applied settings today.


The Grammar of Society

The Grammar of Society

Author: Cristina Bicchieri

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2005-12-12

Total Pages: 290

ISBN-13: 9781139447140

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In The Grammar of Society, first published in 2006, Cristina Bicchieri examines social norms, such as fairness, cooperation, and reciprocity, in an effort to understand their nature and dynamics, the expectations that they generate, and how they evolve and change. Drawing on several intellectual traditions and methods, including those of social psychology, experimental economics and evolutionary game theory, Bicchieri provides an integrated account of how social norms emerge, why and when we follow them, and the situations where we are most likely to focus on relevant norms. Examining the existence and survival of inefficient norms, she demonstrates how norms evolve in ways that depend upon the psychological dispositions of the individual and how such dispositions may impair social efficiency. By contrast, she also shows how certain psychological propensities may naturally lead individuals to evolve fairness norms that closely resemble those we follow in most modern societies.


Book Synopsis The Grammar of Society by : Cristina Bicchieri

Download or read book The Grammar of Society written by Cristina Bicchieri and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2005-12-12 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Grammar of Society, first published in 2006, Cristina Bicchieri examines social norms, such as fairness, cooperation, and reciprocity, in an effort to understand their nature and dynamics, the expectations that they generate, and how they evolve and change. Drawing on several intellectual traditions and methods, including those of social psychology, experimental economics and evolutionary game theory, Bicchieri provides an integrated account of how social norms emerge, why and when we follow them, and the situations where we are most likely to focus on relevant norms. Examining the existence and survival of inefficient norms, she demonstrates how norms evolve in ways that depend upon the psychological dispositions of the individual and how such dispositions may impair social efficiency. By contrast, she also shows how certain psychological propensities may naturally lead individuals to evolve fairness norms that closely resemble those we follow in most modern societies.