Norms and Conformity I

Human beings are social animals (Aronson, 2003). We constantly interact with others on a daily basis. Social norms establish the boundaries or parameters of acceptable behavior in a group, and they are indispensable for the functioning of a group. Early research in social psychology suggests that in the absence of a social norm, people have the tendency to create one. Sherif (1937) conducted an experiment showing that after repeated public pronouncements, people establish a group norm using information provided by other people’s judgment.

Bicchieri (2005) argues that social norms and conventions are mechanisms to coordinate people’s actions in a group. She maintains that there is a subtle difference between social norms and conventions. Although both social norms and conventions are coordinating device, conventions (which are stable descriptive norms according to Bicchieri) are used to solve a coordination game, while social norms transform social dilemmas into coordination games. In other words, it is consistent with an individual’s interest to follow a convention, while following a social norm may be contradicting with a person’s immediate interest. Traffic rules are a good example of conventions. As long as you know that other people drive on the right according to the convention, you will also want to drive on the right because it fits your personal interest. But being generous and acting fairly toward others, which is prescribed by the social norms, does not square with your personal interest as it incurs material cost or the renunciation of benefit.

Bicchieri’s categorization in my view is not a good one, as it does not really correspond to the essence of social norms. Social norms have a social component in them: you conform to social norms because you want to be liked by others and have a good standing in the group. Whenever an individual thinks about whether her behavior is acceptable by others, she is probably thinking of a social norm. Foot-binding of women in ancient China, as Bicchieri argued, is a convention. No matter how this practice came into existence, it quickly spread to all but the lowest classes, and was accepted as a sign of gentility and an important condition for marriage (Mackie, 1996). It is obvious, however, a woman decides to go through the pains to bind her feet is mainly concerned about the acceptance of others, and for this reason, it is better to treat it as a social norm. Conformity to social norms has a signaling function: it sends signals to others who you are.