BACKGROUND Social norms are theoretically hypothesized to influence health-related behaviors such as physical activity and eating behaviors. However, empirical evidence relating social norms to these behaviors, independently of other more commonly-investigated social constructs such as social support, is scarce and findings equivocal, perhaps due to limitations in the ways in which social norms...

Social norms are implicit codes of conduct that provide a guide to appropriate action. There is ample evidence that social norms about eating have a powerful effect on both food choice and amounts consumed. This review explores the reasons why people follow social eating norms and the factors that moderate norm following. It is proposed that eating norms are followed because they provide inform...

The aim of this study was to examine the separate and combined relationships of neighborhood social norms and neighborhood social cohesion with smoking behavior in a cohort of adult Mexican smokers. Neighborhood anti-smoking norms were measured as the proportion of residents in each neighborhood who believed that society disapproves of smoking. Perceived social cohesion was measured using a 5-i...

The strengths of social norms vary considerably across cultures, yet little research has shown whether such differences have an evolutionary basis. Integrating research in cross-cultural psychology with evolutionary game theory, we show that groups that face a high degree of threat develop stronger norms for organizing social interaction, with a higher degree of norm–adherence and higher punish...

Persistent, widespread harassment in schools can be understood as a product of collective school norms that deem harassment, and behavior allowing harassment to escalate, as typical and even desirable. Thus, one approach to reducing harassment is to change students' perceptions of these collective norms. Theory suggests that the public behavior of highly connected and chronically salient actors...

We explore the idea that prosocial behavior in laboratory games is driven by social norms imported into the laboratory. Under this view, heterogeneity in behavior across subjects is driven by heterogeneity in sensitivity to social norms. We introduce an incentivized method of eliciting individual norm-sensitivity, and we show how it relates to play in public goods, trust, dictator and ultimatum...

In an economy where there is no double coincidence of wants and without public recordkeeping of past transactions, money is usually seen as the only mechanism that can support exchange. In this paper we show that, as long as the population is finite and agents are sufficiently patient, a social norm establishing gift-exchange can substitute for money. However, for a given discount factor, popul...

How do people sustain resources for the benefit of individuals and communities and avoid the tragedy of the commons, in which shared resources become exhausted? In the present study, we examined the role of serotonin activity and social norms in the management of depletable resources. Healthy adults, alongside social partners, completed a multiplayer resource-dilemma game in which they repeated...

Social norms help people self-organizing in many situations where having an authority representative is not feasible. On the contrary to institutional rules, the responsibility to enforce social norms is not the task of a central authority but a task of each member of the society. “The social norms I am talking about are not the formal, prescriptive or proscriptive rules designed, imposed, and ...