According to a tradition that goes back to David Hume, social conventions have a natural tendency to turn into norms. Normativity increases compliance and stabilizes individual behaviour in spite of changes in incentives. In this paper we report experimental data that confirm this insight and encourage mildly optimistic conclusions regarding human sociality: habits provide extra glue that keeps individuals together, and prevents them from succumbing to anti-social temptation even when punishment is unlikely.

How history and conventions create norms : An experimental study / F. Guala, L. Mittone. - In: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC PSYCHOLOGY. - ISSN 0167-4870. - 31:4(2010), pp. 749-756.

How history and conventions create norms : An experimental study

F. Guala
Primo
;
2010

Abstract

According to a tradition that goes back to David Hume, social conventions have a natural tendency to turn into norms. Normativity increases compliance and stabilizes individual behaviour in spite of changes in incentives. In this paper we report experimental data that confirm this insight and encourage mildly optimistic conclusions regarding human sociality: habits provide extra glue that keeps individuals together, and prevents them from succumbing to anti-social temptation even when punishment is unlikely.
Conventions; Coordination games; Experimental economics; Norms
Settore SECS-P/01 - Economia Politica
Settore M-FIL/02 - Logica e Filosofia della Scienza
2010
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2434/149441
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