Rebels with a cause? How norm violations shape dominance, prestige, and influence granting

Abstract

Norms play an important role in upholding orderly and well-functioning societies. Indeed, violations of norms can undermine social coordination and stability. Much is known about the antecedents of norm violations, but their social consequences are poorly understood. In particular, it remains unclear when and how norm violators gain or lose influence in groups. Some studies found that norm violators elicit negative responses that curtail their influence in groups, whereas other studies documented positive consequences that enhance violators’ influence. We propose that the complex relationship between norm violation and influence can be understood by considering that norm violations differentially shape perceptions of dominance and prestige, which tend to have opposite effects on voluntary influence granting, depending on the type of norm that is violated. We first provide correlational (Study 1) and causal (Study 2) evidence that norm violations are associated with dominance, and norm abidance with prestige. We then examine how dominance, prestige, and resultant influence granting are shaped by whether local group norms and/or global community norms are violated. In Study 3, protagonists who violated global (university) norms but followed local (sorority/fraternity) norms were more strongly endorsed as leaders than protagonists who followed global norms but violated local norms, because the former were perceived not only as high on dominance but also on prestige. In Study 4, popular high-school students were remembered as violating global (school) norms while abiding by local (peer) norms. In Study 5, individuals who violated global (organizational) norms while abiding by local (team) norms were assigned more leadership tasks when global and local norms conflicted (making violators “rebels with a cause”) than when norms did not conflict, because the former situation inspired greater prestige. We discuss implications for the social dynamics of norms, hierarchy development, and leader emergence.

Better to bend than to break? Effects of rule behavior on dominance, prestige, and leadership granting.

“…Leadership granting was assessed with a behavioral task by asking participants to imagine that the car company was short on employees and that every employee needed to take up additional tasks. Participants were asked which four tasks they would like human resources to assign to James and were informed that the remaining tasks would be completed by other employees in the company (Van Kleef et al, in press; De Pater et al, 2009; Visée, 2014). Participants could choose from six leader tasks (e.g., presenting the positive annual figures of the team to the other teams in the company) and six subordinate tasks (e.g., organizing catering for a staff party).…”