Shaping societal norms: Experimental evidence on the normative impact of free speech law

Daniel L. Chen and Susan Fillin-Yeh
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Daniel L. Chen: TSE-R - Toulouse School of Economics - UT Capitole - Université Toulouse Capitole - Comue de Toulouse - Communauté d'universités et établissements de Toulouse - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, IAST - Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Susan Fillin-Yeh: Charles River Associates Inc, Boston

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Abstract: Do laws shape values? We explore this question by testing a model of law and norms within a legal realm − U.S. obscenity laws − where economic incentives are not the primary drivers of social change. Our randomized experiment had data entry workers transcribe news reports of either progressive or conservative legal decisions. This design allowed us to observe the impact of these laws on attitudes and norms. We found that exposure to progressive legal decisions resulted in the liberalization of sexual attitudes and a shift in norm perceptions, though not in self-reported behavior. These findings underscore the expressive power of law, with significant implications for decision-making in social and political settings, as well as for the empirical predictions of theoretical models within these domains.

Keywords: Cultural change; Expressive law; Law and norms (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-03
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Published in Journal of Economic Psychology, 2025, 107, pp.102799. ⟨10.1016/j.joep.2025.102799⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05556195

DOI: 10.1016/j.joep.2025.102799

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