How do the social norms sustain?

Singh, Indervir (2009): How do the social norms sustain?

Abstract

The present study attempts to provide reasons for sustainability of social norms. Here, the people are considered as competitors, where everyone tries to improve his position in the society by proving himself better than others. In this situation, a person has an incentive to punish the rule breaker as well as people related to him, if the breaking of rule gives him opportunity to improve his position by punishing them. Further, the people related to the rule breaker have incentive to punish him if they can reduce the extent their punishment by doing so. A person may also use the punishment activity for gains if people who have internalized the norm pay him for his services in different ways due to their conscience. In addition, the conditions for the taking up the punishment activity are also worked out.

• Item Type: MPRA Paper
• Language: English
• Keywords: Social norms, sustainability, emotions and competition.
• Subjects: D - Microeconomics > D0 - General > D03 - Behavioral Microeconomics: Underlying Principles; D - Microeconomics > D0 - General > D02 - Institutions: Design, Formation, Operations, and Impact; Z - Other Special Topics > Z1 - Cultural Economics ; Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology > Z13 - Economic Sociology ; Economic Anthropology ; Social and Economic Stratification

References

Akerlof, George A. 1976. The Economics of Caste and of the Rat Race and Other Woeful Tales. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 90 (4): 599-617

Akerlof, George A. 1980. A Theory of Social Custom, of Which Unemployment May be One Consequence. The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 94 (4): 749-775

Basu, Kaushik. 2000. Prelude to Political Economy: A Study of the Social and Political Foundations of Economics. New York: Oxford University Press.

Butler, Gillian and Freda McManus. 2006. Psychology: A Very Short Introduction. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Dawes, Christopher T., James H. Fowler, Tim Johnson, Richard McElreath & Oleg Smirnov. 2007. Egalitarian motives in humans. Nature. 446: 794-796.

Elster, Jon. 1989. Social Norms and Economic Theory. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 3 (4): 99- 117.

Elster, Jon. 1996. Rationality and the Emotions. The Economic Journal, 106 (438): 1386-1397.

Elster, Jon. 1998. Emotions and Economic Theory. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 36 (1): 47-74.

Jafri, Amir H. 2008. Honour Killing: Dilemma, Ritual, Understanding. Karachi: Oxford University Press.

Lazarus. Richard S. 2001. Rational Meaning and Discrete Emotions. In B.K. Scherer et al. (eds), Appraisal Processes in Emotion: Theory, Method, and Research. New York: Oxford University Press.

Nelson, Phillips J. and Kenneth V. Greene. 2003. Signaling Goodness: Social Rules and Public Choice. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.

Passer, Michael W. and Ronald E. Smith. 2007. Psychology: The Science of Mind and Behavior. New Delhi: Tata McGraw Hill.