Shrieking Sirens. Schemata, Scripts, and Social Norms: How Change Occurs

Cristina Bicchieri and Peter McNally

No 5, PPE Working Papers from Philosophy, Politics and Economics, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract: This paper investigates the causal relationships among scripts, schemata, and social norms. The authors examine how social norms are triggered by particular schemata and are grounded in scripts. Just as schemata are embedded in a network, so too are social norms, and they can be primed through spreading activation. Moreover, the expectations that allow a social norm’s existence are inherently grounded in particular scripts and schemata. Using interventions that have targeted gender norms, open defecation, female genital cutting, and other collective issues as examples, the authors argue that ignoring the cognitive underpinnings of a social norm doom interventions to failure.

Keywords: script; schema; norms; social norms; gender; interventions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C99 Z13 Z18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 58 pages
Date: 2016-02
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-neu and nep-soc
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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