The focusing and informational effects of norms on pro-social behavior

Abstract

This paper reports an experiment examining the effect of social norms on pro-social behavior. We test two predictions derived from work in psychology regarding the influence of norms. The first is a "focusing" influence, whereby norms only impact behavior when an individual's attention is drawn to them; and the second is an "informational" influence, whereby a norm exerts a stronger impact on an individual's behavior the more others he observes behaving consistently with that norm. We find support for both effects. Either thinking about or observing the behavior of others produces increased pro-social behavior -even when one expects or observes little pro-social behavior on the part of others -and the degree of pro-social behavior is increasing in the actual and expected pro-social behavior of others. This experiment eliminates strategic influences and thus demonstrates a direct effect of norms on behavior. Keywords: Social norms Altruism a b s t r a c tThis paper reports an experiment examining the effect of social norms on pro-social behavior. We test two predictions derived from work in psychology regarding the influence of norms. The first is a ''focusing" influence, whereby norms only impact behavior when an individual's attention is drawn to them; and the second is an ''informational" influence, whereby a norm exerts a stronger impact on an individual's behavior the more others he observes behaving consistently with that norm. We find support for both effects. Either thinking about or observing the behavior of others produces increased pro-social behavior -even when one expects or observes little pro-social behavior on the part of others -and the degree of pro-social behavior is increasing in the actual and expected pro-social behavior of others. This experiment eliminates strategic influences and thus demonstrates a direct effect of norms on behavior.

Does competition affect giving?

“…(1999) do the same in ultimatum game experiments. Krupka and Weber (2009) find that subjects generally behave more pro-socially when they observe more pro-social behavior on the part of others. In the context of public goods provision problem, Vesterlund (2003) explored the possibility that the prior contributions of others may provide a signal about the quality of a public good.…”

Peer effects and social preferences in voluntary cooperation: A theoretical and experimental analysis

“…Our use of the gift-exchange game separates our study from papers that investigate and find peer effects (in the absence of any payoff spillovers like in our case) in sharing in the dictator game (Bicchieri & Xiao, 2009;Cason & Mui, 1998;Krupka & Weber, 2009) and in the ultimatum game (Ho & Su, 2009). Papers more closely related to the experimental part of our paper are Bardsley and Sausgruber (2005) and Mittone and Ploner (2011).…”

Desert and inequity aversion in teams

“…Corgnet et al (2011Corgnet et al ( , 2013 show experimentally that peer monitoring increases peer pressure in teams. 19 See Young (1998), Bicchieri (2006) and Krupka and Weber (2009) for further discussion and experimental evidence of the role of social norms and the importance of context and expectations in how norms drive behavior. introduces hierarchies of beliefs into utility.…”