Non-Selfish Behavior: Are Social Preferences or Social Norms Revealed in Distribution Decisions?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun Hargreaves Heap ◽  
Konstantinos Matakos ◽  
Nina Weber
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Selfish Behavior

A Matter of Trust: From Social Preferences to the Strategic Adherence to Social Norms

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-52 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joachim I. Krueger ◽  
Adam L. Massey ◽  
Theresa E. DiDonato
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Preferences

scholarly journals Non-selfish behaviour: Are social preferences or social norms revealed in distribution decisions?

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaun P. Hargreaves Heap ◽  
Konstantinos Matakos ◽  
Nina Sophie Weber
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Alternative Explanation ◽  
Social Norm ◽  
Social Preference ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Social Identification ◽  
Survey Experiments ◽  
Pareto Criterion ◽  
Perceived Social Norms

People frequently behave non-selfishly in situations where they can reduce their own payoff to help others. It is typically assumed that such pro-social behaviour arises because people are motivated by a social preference. An alternative explanation is that they follow a social norm. We test with two survey experiments (N=2,408) which of these two explanations can better explain decisions people make in a simple distribution game under three different elicitation mechanisms. Unlike previous studies, we elicit preferences and perceived social norms directly for each subject. We find that i) norm-following better explains people’s distributive choices compared to social preferences and ii) lack of confidence in one’s social preference –itself explained by weaker social identification— predicts norm-following. Our findings imply that the Pareto criterion has weaker (than previously thought) foundations for welfare evaluations, but this effect may be attenuated in societies with stronger social identification. Perhaps unexpectedly, but unsurprisingly given i) above, we find that different mechanisms for eliciting social preferences have no effect on distribution decisions.

Social norms or social preferences?

2010 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Binmore
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Social Preferences

scholarly journals Impulsive Selfish and Contemplated Prosocial Behavior in Children

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toru Ishihara ◽  
Noriteru Morita ◽  
Haruto Takagishi ◽  
Keita Kamijo
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Control ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Prosocial Behavior ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Decision Time ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Selfish Behavior ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cooperation Model ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract Cooperation is required for human beings to survive and thrive. In the past decade, to deepen the understanding of human cooperation, more attention has been paid to default prosocial behavior and calculated selfish behavior in the adult population. Whether prosocial behavior is due to an intrinsically altruistic nature or to internalized social norms remains controversial. We approached this question by examining the relationship between cognitive control and decision time, and prosocial behavior in children. We analyzed the data obtained from 226 children aged from 8 to 11 years. The results indicated that greater cognitive control and longer decision time were independently associated with promoted prosocial behavior. That is, the intuitive cooperation model of prosocial behavior established in the adult population may not be supported in children. Although cognitive control was positively associated with prosocial behavior, even children with poor cognitive control promoted prosocial behavior when they were given sufficient decision time. Our findings support the view that prosocial behaviors are automated as habits by the internalization of social norms through lived experiences, and that human beings have an intrinsically selfish nature.

Experimental Economics and Experimental Sociology

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johanna Gereke ◽  
Klarita Gërxhani
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Experimental Economics ◽  
Field Experiments ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Invisible Hand ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
Middle Range ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Psychological Knowledge

Experimental economics has moved beyond the traditional focus on market mechanisms and the “invisible hand” by applying sociological and socio-psychological knowledge in the study of rationality, markets, and efficiency. This knowledge includes social preferences, social norms, and cross-cultural variation in motivations. In turn, the renewed interest in causation, social mechanisms, and middle-range theories in sociology has led to a renaissance of research employing experimental methods. This includes laboratory experiments but also a wide range of field experiments with diverse samples and settings. By focusing on a set of research topics that have proven to be of substantive interest to both disciplines—cooperation in social dilemmas, trust and trustworthiness, and social norms—this article highlights innovative interdisciplinary research that connects experimental economics with experimental sociology. Experimental economics and experimental sociology can still learn much from each other, providing economists and sociologists with an opportunity to collaborate and advance knowledge on a range of underexplored topics of interest to both disciplines.

Intrinsic Motivation, Kindness, and Reciprocity

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Sugden
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Intrinsic Motivation ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Behavioural Economics ◽  
Liberal Tradition ◽  
Intrinsic Motivations ◽  
Trust And Reciprocity ◽  
Crowd Out ◽  
Market Relations

Chapter 9 considers a critique of the market and of the liberal tradition of economics that has been made both by virtue ethicists and by behavioural economists. According to this critique, market relations are based on self-interested and instrumental motivations, and so are morally impoverished; socially valuable practices (particularly those of trust and reciprocity) can depend on pro-social and intrinsic motivations which the market tends to ‘crowd out’. An important strand of behavioural economics is concerned with modelling intrinsic motivation, ‘social preferences’ and preferences for conforming to social norms. I identify a paradoxical implication of many of these models: there cannot be an equilibrium in which everyone is completely trustworthy, because if everyone were trustworthy, trust would not reveal pro-social intentions and so could not prompt trustworthiness. This is the ‘Paradox of Trust’.

scholarly journals PEER EFFECTS IN PRO-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR: SOCIAL NORMS OR SOCIAL PREFERENCES?

2013 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 548-573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Gächter ◽  
Daniele Nosenzo ◽  
Martin Sefton
Keyword(s):  
Social Behavior ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Peer Effects ◽  
Social Preferences ◽  
Pro Social Behavior

Jiyushugi: Japanese Liberalism

1966 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 477-492
Author(s):  
Fang-quei Quo
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Chinese Characters ◽  
Selfish Behavior ◽  
Meiji Restoration ◽  
The Enlightenment

The beginnings of Japanese liberalism date from the middle of the nineteenth century and appear as a product of the enlightenment movement during the Meiji Restoration. But the term Jiyushugi, today understood as equivalent to liberalism in English, has quite a different meaning in traditional Japanese usage. Jiyu consists of two Chinese characters Ji and yu meaning “to follow oneself” or “to use self as the only source of judgment for one's behavior”; shugi is translated as “principle” or “doctrine”. Thus, the word has traditionally been used, with very rare exceptions, to mean egoistic and selfish behavior that deviates from social norms and is specifically heedless of others.

Cooperation and obligation in early parent-child relationships

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ross A. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Social Norms ◽  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Close Relationships ◽  
Social Agency ◽  
Infant Survival ◽  
Peer Experiences ◽  
Early Experiences ◽  
Early Parent ◽  
Collaborative Skills ◽  
Parent Child Relationships

Abstract Tomasello's moral psychology of obligation would be developmentally deepened by greater attention to early experiences of cooperation and shared social agency between parents and infants, evolved to promote infant survival. They provide a foundation for developing understanding of the mutual obligations of close relationships that contribute (alongside peer experiences) to growing collaborative skills, fairness expectations, and fidelity to social norms.

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