Why do scientists withhold information from colleagues, violating the professional norm of sharing? Norm violations are usually attributed to individual interests that lead scientists to reject professional norms. In contrast, we take the view that norm violations can occur when professional norms are valued but it is difficult to ascertain the appropriate course of professional conduct. This v...

In a heterogeneous society with two social groups possessing competing social norms, members of the relatively worse-off group face an incentive to adopt the social norms of the better-off group and assimilate into it. I present a theory in which the cost of assimilation is endogenous and strategically chosen by the better-off group in order to screen those who wish to assimilate. In equilibriu...

Collective decision-making failures are often attributed to group members’ unwillingness to express unpopular opinions, and incident investigations frequently name lack of dissent as a causal factor (Sunstein, 2006). The investigation following the Columbia space-shuttle explosion, for instance, cited a culture at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in which ‘‘it is difficult for ...

Social networking sites (SNSs) are social platforms that facilitate communication. For adolescents, peers play a crucial role in constructing the self online through displays of group norms on SNSs. The current study investigated the role of online social identity (OSI) in the relationship between adolescent exposure to alcohol-related content posted by peers on SNSs and alcohol use. In a sampl...

Norms play an important role in shaping behavior, but our understanding of norm formation is incomplete. This paper views norms as shared values. In the model, players choose values, motivated by economic considerations and, crucially, also by the desire for esteem. The comparative statics are driven by the following tension: players obtain more esteem from peers if they conform; but they may o...

This paper focuses on the dynamic aspects of individual behavior affected by its social embedding, either at large (society-wide norms or averages) or at a local neighborhood. The emphasis is on how initial conditions can affect the long run outcome and to derive, discuss and apply the conditions for such thresholds. For this purpose, intertemporal social pressure (from peers, from norms, or fr...

The current study examined the relations between observed normativity and deviance during adolescents' and young adults' conversations about sex with their friends and their individual perceptions of sexual peer norms. Participants were 16-21-year-old same-sex friendship dyads (31 male and 30 female dyads) who performed a peer interaction task that consisted of five discussion assignments focus...

OBJECTIVE Social psychological theories provide bases for understanding how social comparison processes may impact peer influence. This study examined two peer characteristics that may impact peer influence on adolescent girls' weight-related behavior intentions: body size and popularity. METHOD A school-based sample of 66 9th grade girls (12-15 years old) completed an experimental paradigm i...

Peers are a pervasive aspect of people’s lives, but their role in personality development has rarely been considered. This is surprising, given that peers are promising candidates to explain personality development over the entire lifespan. Due to the lack of clear-cut definitions of peers, we first elaborate on their defining criteria and functions in different life phases. We then discuss the...