Social norm
[12] Sandholtz, Martha Finnemore and Kathryn Sikkink define norms instead as "standards of appropriate behavior for actors with a given identity.
[12][7] Michael Hechter and Karl-Dieter Opp define norms as "cultural phenomena that prescribe and proscribe behavior in specific circumstances.
[9] Economist and game theorist Peyton Young defines norms as "patterns of behavior that are self-enforcing within a group.
"[5] Norms may develop informally, emerging gradually as a result of repeated use of discretionary stimuli to control behavior.
[20][21] Not necessarily laws set in writing, informal norms represent generally accepted and widely sanctioned routines that people follow in everyday life.
In psychology, an individual who routinely disobeys group norms runs the risk of turning into the "institutionalized deviant."
Similar to the sociological definition, institutionalized deviants may be judged by other group members for their failure to adhere to norms.
At first, group members may increase pressure on a non-conformist, attempting to engage the individual in conversation or explicate why he or she should follow their behavioral expectations.
[20] If a worker is late to a meeting, for example, violating the office norm of punctuality, a supervisor or other co-worker may wait for the individual to arrive and pull him aside later to ask what happened.
[36] Individuals can import idiosyncrasy credits from another group; childhood movie stars, for example, who enroll in college, may experience more leeway in adopting school norms than other incoming freshmen.
Finally, leaders or individuals in other high-status positions may begin with more credits and appear to be "above the rules" at times.
[20][36] Even their idiosyncrasy credits are not bottomless, however; while held to a more lenient standard than the average member, leaders may still face group rejection if their disobedience becomes too extreme.
For example, Crandall (1988) noted that certain groups (e.g., cheerleading squads, dance troupes, sports teams, sororities) have a rate of bulimia, a publicly recognized life-threatening disease, that is much higher than society as a whole.
[41] It has been shown that normative messages can promote pro-social behavior, including decreasing alcohol use,[42] increasing voter turnout,[43] and reducing energy use.
[45] Although not considered to be formal laws within society, norms still work to promote a great deal of social control.
Ranging in variations depending on culture, race, religion, and geographical location, it is the foundation of the terms some know as acceptable as not to injure others, the golden rule, and to keep promises that have been pledged.
The language surrounding these laws conveys the message that such acts are supposedly immoral and should be condemned, even though there is no actual victim in these consenting relationships.
[48] Social norms can be enforced formally (e.g., through sanctions) or informally (e.g., through body language and non-verbal communication cues).
[51] Wearing a suit to a job interview in order to give a great first impression represents a common example of a social norm in the white collar work force.
On the other hand, Karl Marx believed that norms are used to promote the creation of roles in society which allows for people of different levels of social class structure to be able to function properly.
"[53] Heinrich Popitz is convinced that the establishment of social norms, that make the future actions of alter foreseeable for ego, solves the problem of contingency (Niklas Luhmann).
The probability of these behaviours occurring again is discussed in the theories of B. F. Skinner, who states that operant conditioning plays a role in the process of social norm development.
Skinner also states that humans are conditioned from a very young age on how to behave and how to act with those around us considering the outside influences of the society and location one is in.
Cialdini, Reno, and Kallgren developed the focus theory of normative conduct to describe how individuals implicitly juggle multiple behavioral expectations at once.
Expanding on conflicting prior beliefs about whether cultural, situational or personal norms motivate action, the researchers suggested the focus of an individual's attention will dictate what behavioral expectation they follow.
[57][63] An Injunctive norm, on the other hand, transmits group approval about a particular behavior; it dictates how an individual should behave.
By quantifying behavioral expectations graphically or attempting to plot the logic behind adherence, theorists hoped to be able to predict whether or not individuals would conform.
The return potential model and game theory provide a slightly more economic conceptualization of norms, suggesting individuals can calculate the cost or benefit behind possible behavioral outcomes.
If the return curve in Figure 1 correctly displays the example social norm, we can see that if someone drinks 0 cups of coffee a day, the group strongly disapproves.
A framework called comparative institutional analysis is proposed to deal with the game theoretical structural understanding of the variety of social norms.
