Social transmission of cultural practices and implicit attitudes

Norm Dynamics: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Social Norm Emergence, Persistence, and Change

Social norms are the glue that holds society together, yet our knowledge of them remains heavily intellectually siloed. This article provides an interdisciplinary review of the emerging field of norm dynamics by integrating research across the social sciences through a cultural-evolutionary lens. After reviewing key distinctions in theory and method, we discuss research on norm psychology-the neural and cognitive underpinnings of social norm learning and acquisition. We then overview how norms emerge and spread through intergenerational transmission, social networks, and group-level ecological and historical factors. Next, we discuss multilevel factors that lead norms to persist, change, or erode over time. We also consider cultural mismatches that can arise when a changing environment leads once-beneficial norms to become maladaptive. Finally, we discuss potential future research directions and the implications of norm dynamics for theory and policy.

Coevolution of actions, personal norms and beliefs about others in social dilemmas

Human decision-making is affected by a diversity of factors including material cost-benefit considerations, normative and cultural influences, learning and conformity with peers and external authorities (e.g. cultural, religious, political, organisational). Also important are dynamically changing personal perceptions of the situation and beliefs about actions and expectations of others as well as psychological phenomena such as cognitive dissonance and social projection. To better understand these processes, I develop a unifying modelling framework describing the joint dynamics of actions and attitudes of individuals and their beliefs about the actions and attitudes of their groupmates. I consider which norms get internalised and which factors control beliefs about others. I predict that the long-term average characteristics of groups are largely determined by a balance between material payoffs and the values promoted by the external authority. Variation around these averages largely reflects variation in individual costs and benefits mediated by individual psychological characteristics. The efforts of an external authority to change the group behaviour in a certain direction can, counter-intuitively, have an opposite effect on individual behaviour. I consider how various factors can affect differences between groups and societies in the tightness/looseness of their social norms. I show that the most important factors are social heterogeneity, societal threat, effects of authority, cultural variation in the degree of collectivism/individualism, the population size and the subsistence style. My results can be useful for achieving a better understanding of human social behaviour and historical and current social processes, and in developing more efficient policies aiming to modify social behaviour.

The subtle spreading of sexist norms

Even when overt sexism and prejudice become rarer, social norms that perpetuate inequality are remarkably persistent. The present research lays out one of the subtle ways in which sexist norms may spread through society, by pointing to the role of responses to sexism. We investigate how third parties infer social norms about sexism when observing social interactions. In three studies among male students (Studies 1 and 2) and male and female students (Study 3), we demonstrate that subtle variations in how people respond to a sexist statement can have a substantial influence on inferences third parties make about sexist norms. Specifically, when a sexist statement is made and the conversation continues in a smoothly flowing fashion, third parties infer that this opinion is shared among interaction partners, perceived as appropriate, and that sexism is normative among them. However, when a sexist statement is followed by a brief silence that disrupts the flow of the conversation, observers think that it is contentious and that sexism is neither shared nor normative. Importantly, the effects of the manipulation generalized to the perception of sexist descriptive norms among male students in general. We conclude that social and cultural norms are not just inferred from conversation content, but also from conversational flow.

The Psychology of Cultural Dynamics: What Is It, What Do We Know, and What Is Yet to Be Known?

The psychology of cultural dynamics is the psychological investigation of the formation, maintenance, and transformation of culture over time. This article maps out the terrain, reviews the existing literature, and points out potential future directions of this research. It is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on micro-cultural dynamics, which refers to the social and psychological processes that contribute to the dissemination and retention of cultural information. The second part, on micro-macro dynamics, investigates how micro-level processes give rise to macro-cultural dynamics. The third part focuses on macro-cultural dynamics, referring to the distribution and long-term trends involving cultural information in a population, which in turn enable and constrain the micro-level processes. We conclude the review with a consideration of future directions, suggesting behavior change research as translational research on cultural dynamics.

Regulating shared reality with micro-dynamics in the form of conversation

One of the central goals within communication is to establish whether people are on the same wavelength. Although such assessment can occur objectively, by exchanging and comparing viewpoints, people may also derive a sense of shared reality subjectively, through micro-dynamics in the form of conversation that inform them whether their views are shared. The present review outlines the role of these micro-dynamics in developing and regulating a shared reality. It focuses on three different contexts: intergroup communication, computer mediated communication and communication within intimate relationships. The review concludes with a discussion of the power of micro-dynamics in comparison to more explicit forms of social validation.

Signage as a tool for behavioral change: Direct and indirect routes to understanding the meaning of a sign

Signs, prompts, and symbols are a common means to change behavior in our society. Understanding the psychological mechanisms by which signage influences behavior is a critical first step to achieve the desired outcome. In the current research, we propose a theoretical model of sign-to-behavior process. The model suggests that when one encounters a sign, it is encoded to construct an action representation (comprehension process), which is then acted on unless its enactment is inhibited (decision process). We test the implications of the model in two studies. In support of our hypothesis, for unfamiliar signs, clarity of purpose predicts perceived effectiveness of a sign; however, for familiar signs, clarity of purpose does not matter. Insights gained from the studies will help to design effective signs. Practical implications of the model are discussed, and future research directions are outlined.

Certifying leaders? high-quality management practices and healthy organisations: an ISO-9000 based standardisation approach

The present study proposes a set of quality requirements to management practices by taking into account the empirical evidence on their potential effects on health, the systemic nature of social organisations, and the current conceptualisations of management functions within the framework of comprehensive quality management systems. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses focusing on the associations between leadership and/or supervision and health in occupational settings are evaluated, and the core elements of an ISO 9001 standardisation approach are presented. Six major occupational health requirements to high-quality management practices are identified pertaining to communication processes, organisational justice, role clarity, decision making, social influence processes and management support. It is concluded that the quality of management practices may be improved by developing a quality management system of management practices that ensures not only conformity to product but also to occupational safety and health requirements. Further research may evaluate the practicability of the proposed approach.

Culture and Psychology in the 21st Century

At the end of the 20th century, a survey of the metatheoretical landscape of culture and psychology noted an emerging consensus—physicalist ontology, gene–culture co-evolutionary phylogeny, gene–culture interactionist ontogeny, and a mutual constitutionist view of culture and mind. Revisiting the terrain now, the then emerging consensus seems well established, but new challenges appear on the horizon, prompting us to expand our metatheoretical scope. Extending beyond phylogeny, we need to consider a geological timescale, and further naturalizing the culture concept, we need to consider culture and human activity within the planetary system. According to some, we have left the Holocene, and entered into the Anthropocene, a geological epoch in which human activities have such a disproportionate impact that it deserves to be prefaced by humanity. Psychology with interests in culture can play a critical role in human efforts to investigate the psychological processes involved in the cultural change and to reconceptualize humans’ place in nature.