The Breakdown of Anti-Racist Norms: A Natural Experiment on Normative Uncertainty after Terrorist Attacks

Álvarez-Benjumea, Amalia; Winter, Fabian

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3537597

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…Finally, we rely on vignette experiments that look at the effects of the causal factors on normative expectations. Normative expectations are a standard indicator of norms (e.g., Álvarez-Benjumea and Winter 2020;Horne, Dodoo, and Dodoo 2013;Stoebenau et al 2019). Future research could test the integrated theory with alternative measures of norms-for example, participants' anticipated embarrassment (Mollborn 2009(Mollborn , 2010 or sanctions (e.g., Horne 2001;Przepiorka and Diekmann 2018).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…When a norm is in place, people not only react negatively to violations, they also expect that others will react negatively (Bicchieri 2017). Accordingly, norms researchers often study norms by examining factors affecting either sanctioning (e.g., Horne 2001;Przepiorka and Diekmann 2018;Winter and Zhang 2018) or normative expectations about how others are likely to react to a behavior (e.g., Álvarez-Benjumea and Winter 2020;Horne, Dodoo, and Dodoo 2013;Stoebenau et al 2019; see also Mollborn's 2009 and 2010 use of embarrassment to capture such expectations). Here, we focus on normative expectations-how much people expect others will approve or disapprove of a behavior.…”

Section: Theory and Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, there may be multiple consequences, and people may be unsure how to weigh their relative seriousness. Under such conditions of uncertainty, people are particularly likely to look to social cues-both to help them evaluate the likely consequences of a behavior and to gain information about whether others approve or disapprove of it (Álvarez-Benjumea and Winter 2020;Horne, Tinkler, and Przepiorka 2018;Willer, Kuwabara, and Macy 2009). In other words, people cannot simply consider the "objective" consequences of behavior because consequences are not self-evident and do not occur in a vacuum.…”

Section: Social Cues Predictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing an Integrated Theory: Distancing Norms in the Early Months of Covid-19

Horne

Johnson

2021

Sociological Perspectives

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We draw on norms theory to develop hypotheses about norms regulating social distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic. We identify two theoretical approaches—the consequentialist and social cues approach—and argue that understanding norms will be enhanced by integrating these two approaches. We apply these general theoretical approaches to the Covid-19 pandemic to suggest concrete hypotheses regarding distancing norms. We test our hypotheses using two vignette experiments. We find that when the consequences of behavior are clear, both behavior consequences and social cues independently affect norms. But when the consequences of a behavior are ambiguous, behaviors and social cues interact to affect norms. Theoretically, our results provide the first empirical test of an integrated theory of norms, showing that in ambiguous situations an integrated approach produces more accurate predictions than either the behavior consequences or social cues approach alone. Substantively, our paper helps to explain Covid-19 distancing norms and variation in those norms across political orientation. Our findings have implications for understanding support for and compliance with public health directives.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Theory and Predictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Social Cues Predictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Testing an Integrated Theory: Distancing Norms in the Early Months of Covid-19

Horne

Johnson

2021

Sociological Perspectives

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“…Finally, a growing literature has focused on how norms regulating the political space can erode (Alvarez-Benjumea & Winter, 2020;Bursztyn et al, 2017;Valentim, 2021). One central question in this literature has been the role of radicalright success in normalizing individual-level behavior associated with the radical right.…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Does Radical-Right Success Make the Political Debate More Negative? Evidence from Emotional Rhetoric in German State Parliaments

Valentim

Widmann

2021

Polit Behav

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Political rhetoric has important effects on the quality of democracy, but we know very little about what causes variation in the tone of the political debate. We investigate how radical-right success affects the way the remaining politicians discuss political issues. Using an original dictionary, we measure different positive and negative emotions in a newly collected dataset of speeches in German state parliaments. Taking advantage of variation in the timing of elections when radical-right politicians enter these parliaments, we find that politicians of other parties respond to radical-right success by using more positive, instead of negative, emotions. The analyses suggest that this finding may be the result of a strategy by the remaining politicians to distance themselves from radical-right discourse. Our findings highlight how radical-right success can create incentives for other politicians to enforce democratic norms that radical-right politicians breach.

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“…Anonymized comma-separated value (csv) code have been deposited in Open Science Framework (DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/3S5PK ) ( 30 ).…”

Section: Data Availabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The breakdown of antiracist norms: A natural experiment on hate speech after terrorist attacks

Álvarez-Benjumea

Winter

2020

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Terrorist attacks often fuel online hate and increase the expression of xenophobic and antiminority messages. Previous research has focused on the impact of terrorist attacks on prejudiced attitudes toward groups linked to the perpetrators as the cause of this increase. We argue that social norms can contain the expression of prejudice after the attacks. We report the results of a combination of a natural and a laboratory-in-the-field (lab-in-the-field) experiment in which we exploit data collected about the occurrence of two consecutive Islamist terrorist attacks in Germany, the Würzburg and Ansbach attacks, in July 2016. The experiment compares the effect of the terrorist attacks in hate speech toward refugees in contexts where a descriptive norm against the use of hate speech is evidently in place to contexts in which the norm is ambiguous because participants observe antiminority comments. Hate toward refugees, but not toward other minority groups, increased as a result of the attacks only in the absence of a strong norm. These results imply that attitudinal changes due to terrorist attacks are more likely to be voiced if norms erode.

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The Breakdown of Anti-Racist Norms: A Natural Experiment on Normative Uncertainty after Terrorist Attacks

Cited by 6 publications

References 50 publications

Testing an Integrated Theory: Distancing Norms in the Early Months of Covid-19

Testing an Integrated Theory: Distancing Norms in the Early Months of Covid-19

Does Radical-Right Success Make the Political Debate More Negative? Evidence from Emotional Rhetoric in German State Parliaments

The breakdown of antiracist norms: A natural experiment on hate speech after terrorist attacks

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