Norm Psychology

Norm Psychology #

• We live in a world with social rules (often arbitrary)
• Others react negatively to violations
  • inference: others care if we follow them
• Norms allow for large societies

Norms are quickly learned #

• example: new pandemic norms

Norms enforced by group #

• depend on which group

Norms create reputation #

• protection from others: get backing of group for following
• norm enforcement punishes non-conforming members

The norms of cooperation #

• Kin selection (Hamilton’s Rule rB > C)
• Direct reciprocity among non-kin
  • repeated acts of altruism between two known individuals
• Indirect reciprocity
  • cooperative behavior: public norm following will gain social capital ⇒ others will provide support in the future
  • ⇒ reward generosity, altruistic punishment for violation
• Strong Reciprocity

C observes A help B C helps B due to reputation

Learning Norms #

Choosing models to learn from: #

• → use most common method via observation
• → learn from people w/ high competency
• → use heuristics for competency:
  • older
  • more prestigious
• → learn from similar individuals (same age, language, class…)

Result: division of society into efficient subgroups #

• Children factor both age and competency in learning who to trust (competency > age)

  • track history of reliability
  • monitor norm compliance

• learn from alloparents (grandparents)

Norm Enforcement #

Being watched #

more likely to follow norms w/ observers or mechanisms like eyes

Reputation #

• individuals observed following/violating norms
• observers update reputation, share w/ others in group

In fish #

cleaner wrasses who benefit clients are trusted; those who steal mucus will be attacked and shunned by observers

• deception is risky and rare

Norm enforcement in children #

• Norm = action of competent adult
• Children correct those who don’t follow norms
• confident adults favored over non-confident
• deduced via social tolerance (no verbal instruction)
• child makes risk by speaking up

Food Sharing #

Ifaluk (Polynesia) #

• food prep is expensive, elaborate
• sharing food is highly valued
• sharing increased w/ higher benefit
  • poorer relatives w/ more children
• decreased w/ cost to altruist
  • need to go to other islands to share
• lower status ⇒ need to increase status ⇒ more likely to share w/ chief
• chief status ⇒ share w/ kin

Demographic Differences #

• young men overproduce, share more
  • need to increase reputation
  • food shared is high value, risky, unpredictable
• women maximize calories at decreased risk
  • allow men to collect more protein

Show-off hypothesis #

main goal for hunting ⇒ increase status

• risky behavior/prey targeted for reputation
• Merriam islanders: meat shared in feasts when dangerous, freely shared if readily available

Human: