The promise and the peril of using social influence to reverse harmful traditions

Efferson, Charles; Vogt, Sonja; Fehr, Ernst

doi:10.1038/s41562-019-0768-2

Cited by 102 publications

(180 citation statements)

References 62 publications

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“…A key aspect of our model is the heterogeneity in how much individuals care about the conditional cooperation norms, as given by the distribution of thresholds for cooperating ( Figure 1a). Such heterogeneity has been shown to both hinder and promote cooperation (Heckathorn, 1993;Chatman and Flynn, 2001), and may affect the outcome of interventions to changing harmful social norms such as genital cutting (Efferson et al, 2020). Our results show that the effects of such heterogeneity on community dynamics and cooperation level are complicated.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

False beliefs can bootstrap cooperative communities through social norms

Morsky¹,

Akçay²

2020

Preprint

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Building cooperative communities has always been a crucial problem for human societies. Much research suggests that cooperation is facilitated by knowing who exactly is a cooperator and defector, and being able to respond accordingly. As such, anonymous games is thought to hinder cooperation. Here, we show that this conclusion is altered dramatically in the presence of conditional cooperation norms and heterogeneous beliefs about others' behaviours. Specifically, we show that inaccurate beliefs about other players' behaviours can in fact help foster and stabilize cooperation via social norms. To show this, we combine the population dynamics of a social community with the game theory of interactions within the community. In our model, individuals can join a community based on beliefs generated by public signals regarding the level of cooperation within, and decide to cooperate or not depending on these beliefs. These signals may overstate how much cooperation there really is. We show that even if individuals eventually learn the true level of cooperation, the initially false beliefs can trigger a dynamic that sustains high level of cooperation within the community. We also characterize how the rates of joining, leaving, and learning in the community affect the cooperation level and community size simultaneously. Our results illustrate how false beliefs in the presence of conditional cooperation norms can help build up cooperative communities.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 71%

False beliefs can bootstrap cooperative communities through social norms

Morsky¹,

Akçay²

2020

Preprint

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“…Compared to the simple model of identical individuals presented above, individual heterogeneity narrows the conditions under which multiple equilibria arise (Efferson et al 2020). Nevertheless, given the fundamental social nature of human interaction, my guess is that there exist many more examples of environmentally relevant social coordination than those mentioned here.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 82%

“…If individuals' preferences or constraints differ, their 'individual tipping points', i.e., the q making the individual indifferent, are likely to differ too. This may make equilibria less extreme, involving some individuals deviating from customary behaviors even in the polar Nash equilibria (Nyborg and Rege 2003)-or the multiplicity of equilibria may disappear altogether (Efferson et al 2020).…”

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confidence: 99%

No Man is an Island: Social Coordination and the Environment

Nyborg

2020

Environ Resource Econ

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Humans are fundamentally social. Social activities require coordination, possibly leading to multiple equilibria in the form of self-reinforcing patterns of herd behavior. When alternative equilibria differ substantially with respect to environmental damage, they represent virtuous and vicious cycles from an environmental perspective. Such cycles can be sustained by network effects, social pressure to conform, or other mechanisms directly or indirectly yielding coordination benefits. Breaking the vicious cycles can be an important task for environmental policies. I present a stylized model of social coordination with environmental externalities, using it to discuss how environmental policies may help agents coordinate in more environment-friendly ways.Keywords Environmental policy · Multiple equilibria · Social interaction · Tipping points JEL Classification D10 · D62 · D91 · Q01 · Q50 · Q58 "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main" (Donne 1624, Ch. 17).

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“…Cultural evolution theory has the potential to inform public policy aimed to instigate behavior change [ 5 , 6 ]. Our research suggests that once a new norm is common in the group, initially hesitant individuals will soon follow.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At the core of this theory is the idea that culture is made up of information that is learned and transmitted socially, with some cultural traits more likely to be passed on than others [ 2 , 4 ]. Thus, cultural evolution theory can inform policy interventions aimed to promote behavioral change, but applied studies are rare [ 5 , 6 ]. This study provides much-needed empirical data on the effect of social learning biases on norm change by examining the adoption of perinatal care norms among Himba women living in the Kunene region of northwest Namibia, where 55 out of 1000 live births do not survive beyond the first month [ 7 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Adoption of outgroup norms provides evidence for social transmission in perinatal care practices among rural Namibian women

Hagen

Scelza

2020

Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health

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Background and objectives How do new ideas spread in social groups? We apply the framework of cultural evolution theory to examine what drives change in perinatal care norms among Himba women in the Kunene region of Namibia. Access to formal medical care is on the rise in this region, and medical workers regularly visit communities to promote WHO-recommended perinatal care practices. This study investigates how various forms of social transmission affect women’s uptake of medical recommendations concerning perinatal care. Methodology Based on interviews with one hundred Himba mothers, we used Bayesian multi-level logistical regression models to examine how perceptions of group preferences, prestige ascribed to outgroup conformers, interaction with the outgroup, and access to resources affect norm adoption. Results Women who perceive medical recommendations as common in their group prefer, plan and practice these recommendations more often themselves. We observed a shift towards medical recommendations regarding birth location and contraception use that was in line with conformity bias predictions. Practices that serve as cultural identity markers persist in the population. Conclusions and implications Norm changes, and the cultural evolutionary processes that can lead to them, are not uniform, either in process or pace. Empirical studies like this one provide important examples of how these changes reflect local culture and circumstance, and are critical for better understanding the models that currently predominate in cultural evolution work. These cases can also help bridge the gap between evolutionary anthropology and public health by demonstrating where promotion and prevention campaigns might be most effective. Lay summary The recent promotion of WHO-recommended perinatal care practices in Namibia provides an opportunity to empirically study norm change using a cultural evolution framework. We found women adopt medical recommendations when they believe these are common in their social group. Local norms that were not discouraged persisted in the study group.

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The promise and the peril of using social influence to reverse harmful traditions

Cited by 102 publications

References 62 publications

False beliefs can bootstrap cooperative communities through social norms

False beliefs can bootstrap cooperative communities through social norms

No Man is an Island: Social Coordination and the Environment

Adoption of outgroup norms provides evidence for social transmission in perinatal care practices among rural Namibian women

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