Individuals adapt how they punish social norm violations through social observation.

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Metanorms are informal rules about how to react to social norm violations. Since metanorms vary across groups, individuals must adapt their metanorms to match their local social environment's expectations. However, little is known about the mechanisms through which individuals learn and update their metanorms. The present study sought to investigate if individuals can use social observation, here observing the punitive behaviors of others, to adapt their metanorms.

Methods

In an online task, 314 Canadian participants were asked to select a reaction (inaction, gossip, exclusion or confrontation) to a set of social norm violations before and after observing others who mostly used one type of punishment when faced with new social norm violations.

Results

The

SUBMITTER: Desilets E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12855529 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature