2 - Habits of the Mind
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
Summary
Introduction
In the previous chapter, I presented some ‘internal’ existence conditions for social norms. Without normative beliefs, empirical expectations, and conditional preferences for conformity by a sufficient percentage of individuals in a population, no norm would survive. My definitions were meant to highlight the interdependence of beliefs and actions that create and support this kind of collective phenomena. I left open the question of how expectations and beliefs exert their influence on social behavior, and under which conditions the norms they support become prescriptively or proscriptively operative. These questions arise from the fact that norms are not continuously activated; rather, they become salient and active only under certain situational conditions. Even when active, norms operate along with other dynamics, sometimes competitively. Thus, under any given set of circumstances, observed behavior may be due to factors other than the operation of norms, but this fact per se does not deprive the concept of scientific validity. What needs to be demonstrated is that norms have predictable effects on social behavior and that we can make interesting and accurate predictions about the influence of norms in specific social situations.
To fully accomplish this goal a good operational definition of social norms is in order. By ‘operational’ I mean that such a definition must have an empirical, testable content. The definition provided in Chapter 1 lends itself to empirical testing, because we can establish whether individuals have certain beliefs and expectations and whether their behavior is consistent with their expectations.
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- Information
- The Grammar of SocietyThe Nature and Dynamics of Social Norms, pp. 55 - 99Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2005