Egocentric Norm Adoption

Thomas Neuber ()

CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series from University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany

Abstract: Social norms pervade human interaction, but their demands are often in conflict. To understand behavior, it is thus crucial to know how individuals resolve normative tradeoffs. This paper proposes that sincere judgments about the relative importance of conflicting norms are shaped by personal interest. We show that people tend to follow norms from which they benefit themselves, even in contexts where their own decisions only affect others. In a (virtual) laboratory experiment, each subject makes two decisions over allocations of points within a group of two other participants. The sets of possible allocations entail different normative tradeoffs, and subjects have no personal stakes in their own decisions. However, they are affected by others’ decisions: each subject is part of a group, and the members of different groups simultaneously decide over others’ allocations along a circle. We find that subjects’ decisions are biased towards the normative principles aligned with their own interests, thereby favoring other players whenever these share those interests. Subjects’ beliefs about the choices made by others suggest a largely unconscious mechanism. Moreover, survey answers indicate that the effects are driven by self-centered reasoning: subjects who report pronounced perspective-taking are less biased.

Keywords: egocentrism; experiment; social norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C91 D63 D91 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 59
Date: 2021-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-evo, nep-exp and nep-soc
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Working Paper: Egocentric Norm Adoption (2021)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bon:boncrc:crctr224_2021_323

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