changing people social status, particularly upwardly, is often considered an indication of a government success in reaching a fair society, particularly in traditionally rigid structures. this is mainly possible through implementing development plan(s) which is theoretically assumed to result in wiping out traditional rigid structures. in the post-revolutionary iran, the government took upon it...

We argue that modelling emotions among agents in artificial societies will further the computational study of social norms. The appraisal theory of emotions is presented as theoretical underpinning of Jon Elster’s view that social norms are sustained not only by material sanctions but also by emotions such as shame and contempt. Appraisal theory suggests the following twofold relationship betwe...

This article shows that social norms are better explained as correlating devices for a correlated equilibrium of the underlying stage game, rather than Nash equilibria. Whereas the epistemological requirements for rational agents playing Nash equilibria are very stringent and usually implausible, the requirements for a correlated equilibrium amount to the existence of common priors, which we in...

We argue that modelling emotions among agents in artificial societies will further the computational study of social norms. The appraisal theory of emotions is presented as theoretical underpinning of Jon Elster’s view that social norms are sustained not only by material sanctions but also by emotions such as shame and contempt. Appraisal theory suggests the following twofold relationship betwe...

We augment A. Singh's "Regulation of Human Sexual Behavior, Sex Revolution and Emergence of AIDS: A Historical Perspective," Bull. Ind. Inst. Hist. Med. (1997), by clarifying why medicine is ignored despite unprecedented pathogenic norms of Western society. While these societal norms are well correlated to etiological findings on divorce and extramarital sex, the norms cannot be rooted properly...

An increase in the social unacceptability of smoking has dramatically decreased tobacco use in the USA. However, how policies (e.g., smoke free air laws) and social factors (e.g., social norms) drive the social unacceptability of tobacco use are not well understood. New research suggests that the stigmatization of smokers is an unrecognized force in the tobacco epidemic and could be one such me...