Social Norms

Introduction to Sociology
Dr Sonya Sharma
Part 1
Culture
Culture consists of the beliefs,
behaviours, objects, and other
characteristics common to the members
of a particular group or society.
A culture consists of the “objects” of a
society, whereas a society consists of the
people who share a common culture
Through culture, people and groups
define themselves, conform to society’s
shared values, and contribute to society.
Thus, culture includes many societal
aspects:
• Language, customs, values, norms,
rules, tools, technologies,
products, organisations, and
institutions.
Values

• Values are universally valid and appeal

to us regardless of situational
constraints.
• These may include Peace; Harmony;
Honesty; Humanity and Wellbeing
• They may also include values which are
embedded in political cultures
including: Freedom; Dignity;
Autonomy; Gender equality and
Democracy
 Socialisation
The lifelong process of
inheriting and disseminating
norms, customs, values and
ideologies providing an
individual with the skills and
habits necessary for
participating within their own
society.
Norms
• Behave in particular ways in certain
situations
• Norms are the visible and invisible rules of
conduct through which societies are
structured and values are realised
• Norms define how to behave in
accordance with what a society has
defined as good, right, and important
• Norms reflect shared expectations about
proper behaviour in a given situation and
appropriate punishment for transgressors
(Reilly, 2018)
• Social norms are fundamental
preconditions for collective action and
order.
 Examples
• Wear black(!) to funerals;
Social Norms • Do not jump the queue;
• Do not eat human flesh;
• “I have been with my girlfriend for five years so….”
Formal norms
• … are established, written rules
• they are behaviours worked out
and agreed up in order to suit
and serve the most people
• Laws are formal norms
• So are employee manuals and
university entrance exam
requirements
 Communication strategies in the UK have targeted both the
social norms around drink driving and the consequences
• From 1979 to 1987 the focus was on the risks of being
caught and alcohol-related deaths on UK roads fell.
• 1987 to 1992 the government targeted the social norms
surrounding drink driving - the messages were aimed at
showing how the rest of society felt when they heard the
Drink driving news of a death of a loved one. The effect was an
increase in peer pressure to prevent others from drink
in the UK driving.
• From 1992 onwards family and friends would express
disappointment and disgust if somebody decided to drive
home after a night of drinking, and once again this had a
profound effect on the number of people drink driving.
Shame
• Current campaigns focus on the exact moment when a
drink driver is about to make a mistake and avoid it.
Morris, J. (2017). Drink drive figures: cause for concern in 2017? Alcohol Policy UK. Accessed from https://www.alcoholpolicy.net/2017/10/drink-drive-figures-
cause-for-concern-2017.html on 22nd August 2019.
Informal norms

• Informal norms are causal

behaviours that are
generally and widely
conformed to.
• People learn these
informal norms by
observation, imitation, and
general socialisation.
Harold Garfinkel (1967)

• Harold Garfinkel studied people’s customs in order to

find out how societal rules and norms not only
influenced behaviour but shaped social order
• ‘Breaching experiments’ tested sociological concepts of
social norms and conformity by the researcher behaving
in a socially awkward manner
• For example, Garfinkel gave his graduate students an
assignment to challenge every day understanding of
terms in a conversation

Studies in Ethnomethodology (1967)

Conversation (Case 2) (Garfinkel, 1967: 42-43)
• S: Hi Ray. How is your girlfriend feeling?
• E: What do you mean, "How is she feeling?" Do you mean physical or
mental?
• S: I mean how is she feeling? What's the matter with you? (He looked
peeved)
• E: Nothing. Just explain a little clearer what do you mean?
• S: Skip it. How are your Med School applications coming?
• E: What do you mean, "How are they?"
• S: You know what I mean!
• E: I really don't.
• S: What's the matter with you? Are you sick?
Garfinkel
experiments
There are some potential
ethical issues as the
participants do not know the
experiment is in progress.
Other examples:
• Students were told to return
to their parental homes and
observe their family as if they
were a lodger
• Subjects were asked to stand
very, very close to a person
while engaging in otherwise
innocuous conversation
 Conditional norms
Conditional and • Where your action depends on what others do
unconditional Unconditional norms
norms • Where the action doesn’t depend on what
others do
 First date
With your
neighbour, write a
list of social norms
for the following Tipping staff in a restaurant
contexts, it could
be your own
country or the UK.
Giving a gift
 Definition of culture

Formal and
Summary Investigate social
norms
informal
Conditional and
unconditional

In part 2 I will describe how the

sociological literature explores social
norms, and we will discuss sanctions
Part 2
The literature examines social norms in
specific contexts…
#1 Joke Theft (Reilly, 2018)
• This paper examines the enforcement of ambiguous
norms by studying joke theft in stand-up comedy
• The norm, not to steal another’s joke is central to their
practice and community
• Peer enforcement (Oliar and Sprigman, 2008; Reilly,
2018)
• Group membership – authentic and pro-social?
• Violations of social norms can reflect the transgressor’s
membership more than the alleged transgressive act

Reilly, R. (2018). No Laughter among Thieves: Authenticity and the Enforcement of

Community Norms in Stand-Up Comedy. American Sociological Review, 83(5), 933-
958.
#2 Gourmet Cuisine (Fauchart and von Hippel, 2008)

• Community of professional French chefs hold strong social

norms:
• A chef must not copy another chef’s work and innovation
exactly (effectively patenting an idea);
• If a chef reveals recipe-related secret information to a
colleague, that chef must not pass the information on to
others without permission (trade-secrets law)
• A third norm is that colleagues must credit developers of
significant recipes (or techniques) as the authors of that
information (similar to copyright law)
• Violators of the norms are punished by a refusal to provide
further information and by a lowered reputation in the
community.

Fauchart, E., and von Hippel, E. (2008). Norms based intellectual property systems:
the case of French chefs. Organisation Science, 19(2): 187-201.
#3 A sinking ship (Frey, Savage and Torgler, 2010)

• Under what conditions do people deviate from selfish

rationality?
• This paper compares the survivor profiles of the Titanic
and the Lusitania
• And observes the social norm of “Women and children
first”
• It argues that time pressure appears to be crucial when
explaining behaviour in life or death situations and
whether social norms are conformed to or not

Frey, B., Savage, D., and Torgler, B. (2010). Interaction of natural survival
instincts and internalised social norms exploring the Titanic and Lusitania
disasters. PNSA, 107 (11): 4862-4865.
Sanctions
• Social norms operate through informal
sanctions directed at norm violators
• Sanctions affect the material situation of the
offender either by direct punishment or by
social ostracism
• Gossip can act as a multiplier on these
sanctions by adding third-party sanctions –
reputation cost
• Sanctions operate through the emotion of
shame
Sanctions
• Often, normative expectations are paired with
the expectation of sanctions
• The combination of punishment (mild, serious,
or absent) and a person’s sensitivity to the norm
will determine individual compliance
• There are positive and negative sanctions
• Someone who is indifferent to or even disagrees
with the norm’s content will avoid conformity if
no sanction is present, whereas someone who
supports the norm will tend to conform even if
no punishment looms
Positive sanctions
Liking, appreciation, trust, and respect
and so forth.
Negative sanctions
• Ostracism
• Avoidance
• Contempt in the observer triggers shame in
the norm violator
• Flaunting one’s violation of social norms is
likely to trigger anger because it tells other
people that one does not care about their
reactions
But
• Sanctioning can be costly and risky
Sanctions – research study example
• Day care centres in Israel
• Close at 4pm
• Most parents picked up their children on time
and only very rarely came after 4.30pm
• If they were late, they had to look at the teacher
in the eye and apologise for the inconvenience
• Researchers wanted to test how strong this
social norm was against financial incentive in an
experiment
• They introduced a fine for parents who showed
up late … what do you think happened?

Gneezy, U., and Rustinchini, A., (2000). A fine is a price. Journal of legal studies, vol
XXIX.
Sanctions
• Introducing a financial penalty
actually caused more parents to turn
up late (more than twice the pre-fine
level).
• The financial penalty took away the
guilt for being late
• The financial incentives were
incompatible with the non-financial
incentives
 In Part 2 we looked at some
Joke theft
of the sociological literature
Gourmet cuisine
and how they explore social
Sinking ship
norms in particular contexts

Summary Sanctions, including positive and negative

sanctions

In Part 3 we will evaluate the function of social

norms, discuss belief traps and pluralistic
ignorance before discussing how norms are
created, evolve and change
Part 3
Pluralistic ignorance
• A situation in which most people’s personal normative beliefs, are not in
line with their normative expectation.
• Pluralistic ignorance results when people know that their own behavior
does not reflect their true sentiments, but they assume that other people
are acting based on what they genuinely feel (O’Gorman, 1986).
• This is how bad norms often survive.
• For example, if an individual doesn’t like to drink much alcohol (personal
normative belief) but they think that most students do (normative
expectation) then they drink more alcohol than they want to because they
think they should to fit in.
• Bad norms can survive because of pluralistic ignorance.
 • No raised hands in class (O’Gorman, 1986)
• Pluralistic ignorance may keep nurses from
acknowledging the stresses of their jobs, prison
guards from showing sympathy for their prisoners,
corporate board members from acknowledging their
concerns about their firm's corporate strategy, and
ordinary citizens from expressing concerns about
Other their government's foreign policy (Westphal &
Bednar, 2005).
Examples • Unexpressed mutual love- both fear rejection and fail
to say anything, but each member assumes the other
is not interested in them (Vorauer & Ratner, 1993)
This is mutual pluralistic ignorance
• Very few people talk about relationship problems and
only highlight the best bits which may lead others to
believe they are incompetent partners or not suited
to a relationship in the first place (Vorauer & Ratner,
1993)
Pluralistic Ignorance

The following set of conditions is a fertile ground

for pluralistic ignorance (Bicchieri 2006, ch. 5;
2014):
• Individuals engage in social comparison
with their reference network
• No transparent communication is possible
• We assume that, unlike us, others'
behavior is consistent with their
preferences and beliefs
• We infer that all but us endorse the
observed norm.
Consequences
• Those experiencing pluralistic ignorance may see themselves
• as deviant in their peer group
• less knowledgeable than their classmates
• more uptight
• less competent
• or less committed.
• This can leave people to feel negative about themselves and alienated
from their own groups and institutions (O’Gorman, 1986).
• Pluralistic ignorance can also cause policies and practices that have, in
reality, lost widespread support.
What are belief traps?
• In a state of pluralistic ignorance, individuals are caught in a belief
trap and will keep following a norm that they deeply dislike.
• A belief that cannot be tested because the believed costs of testing
the belief are too high (Mackie, 1996)
• In a belief trap you will keep following a norm that you do not like.
 How do norms arise, evolve and change?
• For much of human history, norms mostly evolved organically in local
and national communities:
• Habit
• Custom
• Religious/moral norms
• These behaviours are maintained through repeated use and
discretionary stimuli to control the behaviour
• Global norms: UN, debating, agreeing, codifying and implementing
• Examples: bribery, hitting children, discrimination, definitions of
work/slavery etc.

Green, D. (2016). Shifts in Social Norms Often Underpin Change. Oxford Scholarship Online.
How do norms arise, evolve and change?
• Leadership in changing norms
• Acts of individual courage can be pivotal moments, as when Princess Diana
stood up against HIV, Rose McGowan and the ‘me too’ movement
• Governments use norms to try to shape people’s personal behaviour
• This includes a daily avalanche of ‘nudges’ regarding diet, smoking, drink
driving, and more
• For example, in the UK, the government told residents that most
neighbours had already paid their taxes, leading payment rates to rise by
around 15 per cent
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/may/02/nudge-unit-has-it-
worked
What are the benefits of norms?
• Social Norms are rules about how to behave.
• They provide us with an expected idea of how to behave in a particular social group
or culture.
• Although not considered to be formal laws within society, norms still work to
promote a great deal of social control
• For Talcott Parsons of the functionalist school, norms dictate the interactions of
people in all social encounters
• By subscribing to norms and values, individuals put themselves in a situation where
they can be seen as part of the collective by strengthening cohesiveness
• Belonging
• Efficiency in society
• Control
What are the negatives of social norms?
• 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
• Marx claims that this power dynamic creates social order
• Lack of individualism
• Social control
• Vigilantism
• The norms may be biased or wrong
 Overall summary
In Part 1 we defined culture and investigated social norms including formal and informal norms,
and conditional and unconditional

In Part 2 we looked at some of the sociological literature and how they explore social norms in
particular contexts including Joke theft; Gourmet cuisine and Sinking ships; and explored the
power of sanctions, including negative sanctions
In Part 3 we evaluated the function of social norms; discussed belief traps and pluralistic
ignorance; and described how norms evolve and change

The seminar this week focuses on questions that emerge from the readings and terms
discussed in the lecture. Next week’s lecture focuses on agency, structure and the sociology of
education.