It's not a lie if you believe the norm does not apply: Conditional norm-following and belief distortion

Bicchieri, Cristina; Dimant, Eugen; Sonderegger, Silvia

doi:10.1016/j.geb.2023.01.005

Cited by 39 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 66 publications

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“…Lastly, acquired information may also be misinterpreted with the goal of forming or retaining desired beliefs. For instance, subjects may misinterpret information about their social environment or about themselves, resulting in beneficial beliefs about their behavior being morally acceptable, their deservingness, or their chances at success (Bicchieri et al, 2022; González-Jiménez, 2022; O’Leary-Kelly et al, 2017). To see themselves in a positive light, individuals attribute failures to external factors such as an uneven playing field or bad luck.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, research shows that the relationship between beliefs (whether biased or not) and cooperative behavior can strongly vary on the basis of individual preferences and attitudes. In economic lab studies, roughly 50% of participants are labeled conditional cooperators, flexibly basing their cooperation decision on their construction of the current situational and social demands (Bicchieri et al, 2022; Fischbacher & Gächter, 2006; Fischbacher et al, 2001). The remainder are categorized either as individualistic actors (approximately 30% of participants prioritize their own outcomes without consideration for others; Messick & McClintock, 1968) or, infrequently, as pure altruists (those who optimize others’ outcomes without self-regard).…”

Section: Cognition and Cooperationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This adaptation might be achieved through the formation of stronger social bonds, which may explain the increase of motivated beliefs promoting more prosocial behavior under these conditions (Cetemen et al, 2020). In contrast, when individuals are uncertain about others’ actions, they tend to cooperate less (Bicchieri et al, 2022; Rapoport et al, 1992). This type of uncertainty is distinct from social and environmental uncertainty in that it is rooted in mistrust or unpredictability of other individuals’ behaviors rather than the broader environment.…”

Section: Influence Of Situational Factors On Motivated Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Motivated Cognition in Cooperation

Fiedler,

Habibnia,

Fahrenwaldt

et al. 2023

Perspect Psychol Sci

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Successful cooperation is tightly linked to individuals’ beliefs about their interaction partners, the decision setting, and existing norms, perceptions, and values. This article reviews and integrates findings from judgment and decision-making, social and cognitive psychology, political science, and economics, developing a systematic overview of the mechanisms underlying motivated cognition in cooperation. We elaborate on how theories and concepts related to motivated cognition developed in various disciplines define the concept and describe its functionality. We explain why beliefs play such an essential role in cooperation, how they can be distorted, and how this fosters or harms cooperation. We also highlight how individual differences and situational factors change the propensity to engage in motivated cognition. In the form of a construct map, we provide a visualization of the theoretical and empirical knowledge structure regarding the role of motivated cognition, including its many interdependencies, feedback loops, and moderating influences. We conclude with a brief suggestion for a future research agenda based on this compiled evidence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Cognition and Cooperationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Influence Of Situational Factors On Motivated Cognitionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Motivated Cognition in Cooperation

Fiedler,

Habibnia,

Fahrenwaldt

et al. 2023

Perspect Psychol Sci

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“…We are aware of only one paper jointly modelling the dynamics of normative (yfalse~) and empirical (xfalse~) expectations in addition to actions ( x ) and personal ( y ) norms [176]. Inspired by recent behavioural experiments [119,123,126–128,132], Gavrilets [176] described quantitatively the dynamics of these variables in social dilemmas. Besides social influences by peers, Gavrilets’ model also accounted for the influence by an external authority promoting a particular action G .…”

Section: Some Specific Models Of Norm Dynamicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling social norms: an integration of the norm-utility approach with beliefs dynamics

Gavrilets,

Tverskoi,

Sánchez

2024

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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We review theoretical approaches for modelling the origin, persistence and change of social norms. The most comprehensive models describe the coevolution of behaviours, personal, descriptive and injunctive norms while considering influences of various authorities and accounting for cognitive processes and between-individual differences. Models show that social norms can improve individual and group well-being. Under some conditions though, deleterious norms can persist in the population through conformity, preference falsification and pluralistic ignorance. Polarization in behaviour and beliefs can be maintained, even when societal advantages of particular behaviours or belief systems over alternatives are clear. Attempts to change social norms can backfire through cognitive processes including cognitive dissonance and psychological reactance. Under some conditions social norms can change rapidly via tipping point dynamics. Norms can be highly susceptible to manipulation, and network structure influences their propagation. Future models should incorporate network structure more thoroughly, explicitly study online norms, consider cultural variations and be applied to real-world processes. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Social norm change: drivers and consequences’.

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“…Despite the above-mentioned studies showing the tendency to infer one expectation from the other, the relationship between the two types of information is not simple. In a recent study (Bicchieri et al ., 2023), participants’ empirical (normative) expectations were elicited, and then they were asked to make an inference about their normative (empirical) expectations. Here by inference I refer to the reasoning process by which an individual derives the information about a social behavior or beliefs from a summary representation of a group's beliefs or behavior.…”

Section: Social Inferencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Norm nudging and twisting preferences

Bicchieri

2023

Behav. Public Policy

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Public policies often involve “norm nudging”, the use of norm information to steer individual behavior in a prosocial direction. Analysis of social norm messaging often concentrates on the outcome measure: the potential change in behavior. The cognitive and psychological processes that underlie individuals’ response to norm information, especially the inferences they draw, are usually overlooked. This knowledge gap may lead to adverse consequences, such as messages backfiring. To (factually) justify norm nudging interventions, it is essential that policymakers understand the complex mechanisms that link context, social expectations and preferences, and how the interpretation of different types of messages affects behavior.

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It's not a lie if you believe the norm does not apply: Conditional norm-following and belief distortion

Cited by 39 publications

References 66 publications

Motivated Cognition in Cooperation

Motivated Cognition in Cooperation

Modelling social norms: an integration of the norm-utility approach with beliefs dynamics

Norm nudging and twisting preferences

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