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Behavioral Norms: Variants and Their Identification
Author(s) -
Anderson Joanna E.,
Dunning David
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
social and personality psychology compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.699
H-Index - 53
ISSN - 1751-9004
DOI - 10.1111/spc3.12146
Subject(s) - psychology , social norms approach , norm (philosophy) , social psychology , personality , behavioural sciences , identification (biology) , power (physics) , scholarship , empirical research , epistemology , perception , botany , quantum mechanics , neuroscience , philosophy , physics , political science , law , psychotherapist , biology
Abstract Behavioral norms influence human interaction in virtually every situation, yet the study of norms in the behavioral sciences lags relative to their real‐world power and significance. We describe basic distinctions in norms emerging in the behavioral and social sciences – in particular, how norms may be descriptive (i.e,, what people commonly do) versus injunctive (i.e,, what people should do), and social (i.e,, beliefs about what other people think one should do) versus moral (i.e,, what one privately thinks one should do). We further describe empirical methods that researchers can use to examine whether any particular behavior is inspired by norms and which variant might be responsible. We end by describing emerging findings and questions in recent work on norms. Thus, the purpose of this review is to attempt to organize scholarship about norms for social and personality psychology, in the hope that it may foster empirical investigation of norm‐driven behavior and thus build connections to other behavioral sciences.