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The Evolutionary Emergence of Norms
Abstract
Norms may emerge in a variety of ways: institutions may prescribe behaviours (institutional norm formation), they may be created by a social contract (voluntary norm formation) or they may gradually emerge without either bargaining or the involvement of a norm-making institution (evolutionary norm formation). The central concern of this paper is to formulate hypotheses specifying conditions for the evolutionary emergence of norms. A process is described, starting with recurrent behaviour, leading to the development of preferences for a behaviour, and ultimately to the acceptance of norms (internalization) and the enforcement of activities. The present analysis employs the behavioural model of economics and research findings from social psychology and sociology.
... Nosotras entendemos la democracia también como referida a unas formas de relacionamiento, pero en particular aquellas que constituyen la comunidad como una comunidad política: una en la cual los individuos que la conforman ejercen una cierta agencia para construir, transformar o mantener, de manera pública (en el sentido de Arendt, 1958de Arendt, /2009), a través de su acción (política) y desde sus visiones de comunidad, el marco de relaciones en el que se desarrolla la vida de la comunidad. En parte, este marco se materializa en prácticas que involucran colectivamente a las ciudadanas, y en las normas de todo tipo que definen dichas prácticas: instituidas o instituyentes (Castoriadis, 1975(Castoriadis, /2013; institucionales, voluntarias o evolutivas (Opp, 1982); legales o culturales (Mockus, 2002). Así, las acciones políticas tienen como objeto ese marco de relaciones de la comunidad. ...
... En gran medida, esto ocurre a través de la construcción de normas sociales, es decir, de los comportamientos aprobados y esperados por los miembros de un grupo social (Shaw, 1981). Opp (1982) ha distinguido tres tipos de normas según el proceso por el cual se establecen: institucionales, voluntarias y evolutivas. Las normas institucionales son aquellas impuestas por las organizaciones sociales para su funcionamiento. ...
... No es de extrañar que estos asuntos tengan una figuración menor en la literatura sobre aulas democráticas, ya que justamente son aquellos en los que la clase elige si quiere involucrarse o no, que emergen de su propia autodefinición, y que por tanto no se encuentran dentro de lo que usualmente se entiende como competencia de la profesora y sobre lo cual ella puede decidir ceder su poder. Si ampliáramos conceptualmente las categorías de Opp (1982) para aplicarlas a estos asuntos, éstos serían más voluntarios y evolutivos que institucionalmente impuestos. ¿En qué procesos se materializa la democracia en el aula? ...
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8017-5235 IXTLI-Revista Latinoamericana de Filosofía de la Educación Volúmen 9-Número 17-2022 pp. 29-58. En este artículo nos ocupamos de la pregunta: ¿qué es un aula democrática? Buscamos proble-matizar los modos más difundidos de concebir las aulas democrá-ticas en la literatura: espacios diseñados y administrados por la profesora en los que participan estudiantes para deliberar y deci-dir colectivamente sobre asuntos curriculares o convivenciales. Además, proponemos cómo am-pliar dicha concepción en varias dimensiones. Para ello, revisamos varias formas de democracia y los debates que allí surgen, para luego mostrar cómo éstos suscitan Resumen-Resumo-Abstract Neste artigo tratamos da questão: o que é uma sala de aula demo-crática? Buscamos problematizar as formas mais difundidas de con-ceber salas de aula democráticas na literatura: espaços concebidos e geridos pelo professor em que os alunos participam para delibe-rar e decidir coletivamente sobre questões curriculares ou de con-vivência. Além disso, propomos como estender essa concepção em várias dimensões. Para isso, revisamos várias formas de de-mocracia e os debates que delas surgem, para então mostrar como elas levantam novas questões e In this paper we deal with the question what is a democratic classroom? We seek to proble-matize the most widespread conceptions of democratic classrooms in literature: spaces designed and managed by the teacher in which students participate to deliberate and decide collectively on curri-cular or coexistence issues. In addition, we propose to extend this conception in several dimensions. To do this, we review various forms of democracy and the debates that arise from them, and then show how these raise new questions and open up new possibilities for
... Culture comprises many aspects such as diet or religion, but also socially accepted expectations regarding social interaction (Opp, 1982). These reflect in common dispositions that are enforced internally by society (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2019;Voigt, 2018;Gutmann & Voigt, 2020). ...
Culture and institutions both matter in shaping trajectories for socioeconomic progress. As the debate on causal directionalities between culture and institutions is still ongoing, we recast its perspective: a complex network of symbiotic relationships ties a multitude of cultural and institutional factors together. We blend the institutional complementarities literature with symbiosis theory, and place it into the context of a data-driven approach that extends correlation network analyses. We frame each single interdependence between a cultural and an institutional factor as an asymmetric symbiotic relationship in which a ‘host’ feeds a ‘symbiont’: the latter is more dependent on the former. In our computed network, each relation locates within a broader context of pathways and network constellations. We apply our approach to Brazilian municipal data. Our results confirm high complexity in the coevolution of culture and institutions and suggest an emerging pattern in which cultural factors are more likely to be hosts than institutions or social capital. In the Brazilian municipal reality, the institutional innovation of participatory councils bears the potential of game-changer in the system, while tax collection strongly depends on cultural factors i.e. the (in)formality of the economy and family ties.
... While the former describes the popular 82 behaviors in a group, the latter prescribes the valued social behaviors and contains the 83 moral rules of the group as to what "should" be done (Cialdini & Trost, 1998). These 84 early theories highlighted the tension between norm formation as a process of 85 voluntary obligation versus power coercion (Opp, 1982). 86 As a middle-way approach, Wherle (2016) proposed "normative embodiment", (Wherle, 2016, p.64). ...
The Covid-19 pandemic has hindered international mobility and caught student migrants amid uncertainties packed by the pandemic threat, acculturation stress, and xenophobic sentiments. From the perspective of intersubjective norms, this study explores the acculturation experiences and identity negotiation of a diasporic cohort of Chinese international students to fully understand their "double bind" situation where home and host messages concerning the pandemic were incongruent and caused intercultural conflicts. By conducting a narrative inquiry, we found that the Chinese students' embodiment of social norms was internalized through transnational mobilization and collective attention when the pandemic first took place in China, which fostered a diasporic collective identity. When the pandemic reached host countries, they were caught within a conflict involving perceived mask norm discrepancies between home and host contexts. To acculturate, students engaged in a journey of identity negotiation through an intersubjective navigation of social norms across cultures. This strategy allowed them to adequately express multiple identities ranging from the individual to the global with the potential for agentic change-making
... Social norms, the concept that originates from the field of sociology (Opp, 1982;Elster, 1989), represent what people ought to do or actually do in a specific situation (Cialdini et al., 1990;Bonan et al., 2020;Yin et al., 2021). As Fehr and Fischbacher (2004, p. 63) stated that "the ability to develop and enforce social norms is probably one of the distinguishing characteristics of the human species, " social norms can greatly influence individual and organizational decision-making processes. ...
... Siehe die Diskussion bei Vanberg 1994. Andere miigliche Prozesse der spontanen oder evolutionaren Normentstehung oder Normabschwachung werden behandelt von Axelrod 1986;Nee und Ingram 1998;Oberschall 1986;Opp 1982Opp , 1983Opp , 1990Voss 2001. 6 Siehe zum Folgenden im Einzelnen Opp 2002. ...
Die Frage ist, wie es zu erklären ist, dass Personen eine Protestnorm akzeptieren, d.h. meinen, sie sollten unter bestimmten Bedingungen protestieren. Es werden eine Reihe von Hypothesen über Bedingungen für die Normenstehung vorgeschlagen und in einer Paneluntersuchung getestet. Faktoren, deren Einfluss untersucht wird, sind politische Unzufriedenheit, wahrgenommener politische Einfluss, Mitgliedschaft in protestfördernden Gruppen, Protestteilnahme in der Vergangenheit und erwartete Repression bei Protesten. Diese Hypothesen werden theoretisch begründet. Verschiedene Modelle mit diesen Variablen werden geprüft.
... Street noise harms residents' health, but whether it is limited by social norms depends on the power and influence of those involved in the political process. Other factors must also come into play for a norm to emerge by legal act or evolutionarily (Opp, 1982;Young, 1998) and meet with acceptance. Nevertheless, it may be argued that externalities very often form the starting point for a process of emergence of new social norms. ...
In crisis situations, people have to change their behavior. A collective learning process begins and new patterns of order emerge. Externalities of behavior lead to the emergence of new social norms. But are the social norms also followed? A closer examination must take into account the different character of social norms. Following the theory of Ullmann-Margalit, coordination norms or conventions have different consequences for norm-oriented behavior than cooperation norms. This distinction is also important for lawmaking. There is no “free-rider problem” with coordination norms, but there is one with cooperation norms. This paper examines the question of the characteristics of new norms which emerged during the first wave of the COVID-19 crisis, such as the requirement for distance, the obligation to wear masks and cooperation in the digital tracing of infection chains. This study is based on how Germany has coped with the first wave of the pandemic in spring 2020. However, the analysis leads to conditions which in general may explain the degree of compliance with different types of new social norms.
Norm information in media can predict individuals’ norm perceptions and, ultimately, their behavior. Little research has examined how descriptive norm information manifests in media and impacts beliefs in the real world. Previously, using automated content analysis, we measured and examined longitudinal trends in two types of descriptive norm information, individual use depictions and population norms, pertaining to tobacco and e-cigarette use across six media sources from 2014 to 2017. Here, we assess how this norm information affected norm perceptions over time by pairing these data with a rolling cross-sectional survey of young people’s beliefs and intentions related to these behaviors. We found that individual use depictions predicted some norm perceptions, although the direction of effects varied depending on the source, behavior, and type of perceptions considered. Population norm content did not affect perceptions. These findings highlight that real-world media norm information has real-world effects, and moderators of these effects should be studied.
Pratt investigates the potential erosion of prohibiting assassination, torture, and mercenarism during the US's War on Terrorism. In examining the emergence and history of the US's targeted killing programme, detention and interrogation programme, and employment of armed contractors in warzones, he proposes that a 'normative transformation' has occurred, which has changed the meaning and content of these prohibitions, even though they still exist. Drawing on pragmatist philosophy, practice theory, and relational sociology, this book develops a new theory of normativity and institutional change, and offers new data about the decisions and activities of security practitioners. It is both a critical and constructive addition to the current literature on norm change, and addresses enduring debates about the role of culture and ethical judgement in the use of force. It will appeal to students and scholars of foreign and defence policy, international relations theory, international security, social theory, and American politics.
Pratt investigates the potential erosion of prohibiting assassination, torture, and mercenarism during the US's War on Terrorism. In examining the emergence and history of the US's targeted killing programme, detention and interrogation programme, and employment of armed contractors in warzones, he proposes that a 'normative transformation' has occurred, which has changed the meaning and content of these prohibitions, even though they still exist. Drawing on pragmatist philosophy, practice theory, and relational sociology, this book develops a new theory of normativity and institutional change, and offers new data about the decisions and activities of security practitioners. It is both a critical and constructive addition to the current literature on norm change, and addresses enduring debates about the role of culture and ethical judgement in the use of force. It will appeal to students and scholars of foreign and defence policy, international relations theory, international security, social theory, and American politics.
This paper is concerned with the question: under which conditions do which values emerge ? Values are defined as expectations about what should or must be the ca s e. An evaluation of existing theory and research on values leads to the result that a fruitful general theory explaining the emergence of values is missing. It is argued that a fruitful strategy of stating such a theory is to look for general orienting statements being applied in the diverse
writings on value formation. It turned out that authors of very diverse orientations assume - often implicitly - that the costs and benefits being associated with values are conditions for their emergence. This suggests that utility theory may be applied as a starting point for the formulation of a fruitful theory of value formation. It is argued, that utility theory has to be supplemented by at least one other theory which can explain preferences. Such theories are stated by social psychologists. Furthermore , according to research results of social psychology and sociology preferences and restrictions have to be taken into account which are ignored by economists. Whether such a strategy is fruitful is examined by suggesting a theory which explains the evolutionary formation of values. These are value s emerging step by step without bargaining and without the influence of institutions.
Using the assumptions of rationality and self-interest common to economic analysis, Professors Frohlich, Oppenheimer, and Young develop a profit-making theory of political behavior as it pertains to the supply of collective goods-defense, law and order, clean air, highways.
When a transaction is concluded in the marketplace, two bundles of property rights are exchanged. A bundle of rights often attaches to a physical commodity or service, but it is the value of the rights that determines the value of what is exchanged. Questions addressed to the emergence and mix of the components of the bundle of rights are prior to those commonly asked by economists. Economists usually take the bundle of property rights as a datum and ask for an explanation of the forces determining the price and the number of units of a good to which these rights attach.
Economics textbooks invariably describe the important economic choices that all societies must make by the following three questions: What goods are to be produced? How are these goods to be produced? Who is to get what is produced? This way of stating social choice problems is misleading. Economic organizations necessarily do resolve these issues in one fashion or another, but even the most centralized societies do not and cannot specify the answer to these questions in advance and in detail. It is more useful and nearer to the truth to view a social system as relying on techniques, rules, or customs to resolve conflicts that arise in the use of scarce resources rather than imagining that societies specify the particular uses to which resources will be put.