Growing Unpopular Norms

Christoph Merdes ()
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Christoph Merdes: http://www.mcmp.philosophie.uni-muenchen.de/people/doct_fellows/merdes_christoph/index.html

Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, 2017, vol. 20, issue 3, 5

Abstract: Unpopular norms are a pervasive and puzzling phenomenon of the social world. They are norms that are established and maintained against the interest of their subjects, but without external coercion. Pluralistic ignorance has been suggested as a potential explanation of unpopular norms. What is currently lacking is a formal model of this process that can be meaningfully compared with empirically known properties of pluralistic ignorance. An agent-based model of a growing social network can reproduce the most significant qualitative features, viz a deviation of the perceived norm from the preference distribution and the dynamical lag of the former behind the latter. In addition, the model is extended with a central influence representing for example central media or a powerful political elite.

Keywords: Social Norms; Agent-Based Simulation; Social Influence; Pluralistic Ignorance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017-06-30
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:jas:jasssj:2016-100-3

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