Social norms and judgement and decision-making

Silvio Aldrovandi

Chapter 68 in Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Neuroscience and Management, 2026, pp 241-243 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Social norms are shared expectations about appropriate behaviour and influence judgement and decision-making across diverse domains. Distinguishing between descriptive norms (what most people do) and injunctive norms (what people should do) helps explain how social information guides individual choices. Norms reduce uncertainty but can also bias reasoning through conformity and moralisation processes. Research demonstrates their impact on behaviours ranging from environmental conservation to organisational decision-making. Neuroscientific findings reveal that norm compliance engages brain regions involved in reward processing and performance monitoring, suggesting that adherence to norms is partly governed by reinforcement learning mechanisms that promote social alignment and cooperation.

Keywords: Social norms; Descriptive norms; Injunctive norms; Conformity; Moral decision-making; Neural mechanisms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035332885
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