The Conundrum of Social Norms

Xenitidou, Maria; Edmonds, Bruce

doi:10.1007/978-3-319-05308-0_1

Cited by 13 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…More recent research seeks to understand norms themselves (e.g., Diekmann, Przepiorka, and Rauhut 2015;Eriksson, Strimling, and Coultas 2015). Much of this work focuses on norm emergence and enforcement (e.g., Diekmann and Przepiorka 2016;Horne 2009;Przepiorka and Berger 2016;Xenitidou and Edmonds 2014). But norms are conditional; they are applied differently in different situations (Edmonds 2014;Hechter and Opp 2001).…”

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confidence: 99%

The Conditionality of Norms: The Case of Bridewealth

Horne

Dodoo

2018

Soc Psychol Q

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Social norms are rules that prescribe and proscribe behavior. The application of norms is conditional. But scholars have little systematic understanding of the factors that affect conditionality. The authors argue that understanding norms requires assessing the costs and benefits of focal and nonfocal behaviors for norm targets, beneficiaries, and enforcers. The authors develop hypotheses about two combinations of these factors; they hypothesize that 1) costs to the norm target of complying with the norm, and 2) behavior by the norm beneficiary that hurts the norm target, weaken the norm. The authors use a vignette experiment to test these hypotheses in the context of bridewealth norms in Africa. The results are consistent with the predictions. The study contributes to the literature on norms by suggesting a systematic approach to understanding norm conditionality.

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confidence: 99%

The Conditionality of Norms: The Case of Bridewealth

Horne

Dodoo

2018

Soc Psychol Q

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“…social norms [22]), social contexts are manifested both at the level of observable practice as well as having cognitive correlates. In this case there may be both the unconscious correlate, the kinds of situation automatically recognised by individuals, as well as an explicit and conscious recognition of well-entrenched social contexts.…”

Section: About Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Room Around the Elephant: Tackling Context-Dependency in the Social Sciences

Edmonds

2017

Understanding Complex Systems

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Context is crucial for understanding social phenomena, but is not being addressed. Contexts can become socially entrenched and acquire their own labels, allowing different social coordination systems to be developed for different kinds of situation. Three ways to avoid context are discussed. Fitting data to mathematical models which 'explain' the data using significance tests avoids the problems of context, but may average over different contexts inappropriately. 'Behavioural foundationalism', which assumes a generic model of behaviour that is valid across different contexts, avoids the context problem by producing models based on a micro-specification to see if the macro-consequences match the available data, e.g. neo-classical decision theory and some agent-based simulations. A third strategy to avoid the context problem is to retreat into specificity, providing so much detail that the context is unique with no attempt at generalisation. Three ways forward are proposed (1) using data mining techniques to look for models whose output 'fits' various target kinds of behaviour, (2) context-dependent simulation modelling, with the memory of the agent being context-sensitive, and context-relevant knowledge and behaviours being applied in decision-making, and (3) combining qualitative and formal approaches, with neither qualitative nor quantitative evidence being ignored. Agent-based modelling can use qualitative evidence to inform the behavioural strategies that people use in given situations. Simulations based on micro-level behaviours can produce numbers for comparison with macro-level quantitative data. This supports experimentation to understand emerging processes, and investigate the coherence of the qualitative assumptions and the quantitative evidence. Explicitly recognising and including context-dependency in formal simulation models allows for a well-founded method for integrating qualitative, quantitative and formal modelling approaches in the social sciences. Then some of the wealth of qualitative ethnographic, observational and interviewing work of the social sciences can enrich formal simulation models directly, and allow the quantitative and the qualitative to be assessed together and against each other. Before the advent of cheap computing power, analytic mathematical models were the only formal models available, but their simplicity ruled out context dependency, leading to a focus on what generic B. Edmonds models might tell us. New information and communication technologies have resulted in a lot more data on social phenomena to distinguish different contexts and behaviours. We no longer have to fit generic models due to data paucity and limits to storage and processing, or ignore context or over-simplify what we observe to obtain and use formal models. Addressing context has huge potential for the social sciences, including: better models and understanding of human behaviour; more effective ways of collecting, integrating and analysing data; and the prospect for a well-founded means of int...

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“…This socio‐cognitive approach has been followed by other ABM studies to examine the cognitive counterpart of social norms and the importance of social contexts. These provide normative meaning and signals for individuals in typical social dilemmas, using an interesting mix of ABM, experimental and qualitative methods …”

Section: Cooperation and Social Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Agent‐based models in sociology

Bianchi

Squazzoni

2015

WIREs Computational Stats

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This article looks at 20 years of applications of agent-based models (ABMs) in sociology and, in particular, their explanatory achievements and methodological insights. These applications have helped sociologists to examine agent interaction in social outcomes and have helped shift analyses away from structural and aggregate factors, to the role of agency. They have improved the realism of the micro-behavioral foundations of sociological models, by complementing analytic modeling and game theory-inspired analyses. Secondly, they have helped us to dissect the role of social structures in constraining individual behavior more precisely than in variable-based sociology. Finally, simulation outcomes have given us a more dynamic view of the interplay between individual behavior and social structures, thus promoting a more evolutionary and process-based approach to social facts. Attention here has been paid to social norms, social influence, and culture dynamics, across different disciplines such as behavioral sciences, complexity science, sociology, and economics. We argue that these applications can help sociology to achieve more rigorous research standards, by promoting a modeling environment and providing tighter cross-disciplinary integration. Recently, certain methodological improvements toward model standardization, replication, and validation have been achieved. As a result, the impact of these models in sociology is expected to grow even more in the future

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The Conundrum of Social Norms

Cited by 13 publications

References 5 publications

The Conditionality of Norms: The Case of Bridewealth

The Conditionality of Norms: The Case of Bridewealth

The Room Around the Elephant: Tackling Context-Dependency in the Social Sciences

Agent‐based models in sociology

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