Why social norms may fail us when we need them most.

Where social norms are the 'glue' guiding behavior, people hardly think of their behavior as an act of norm compliance. They do consciously look for social norms in situations of environmental or social uncertainty, because i) norms provide behavioral cues that reduce uncertainty and ii) the uncertainty is partially induced by the lack or instability of social norms themselves-creating the (flawed) perception that social norms often fail us when we need them most. We discuss several state-of-the-art conceptualizations of social norms-abstract and specific norms, the social norms life cycle, and social norms in changing contexts-to highlight where and how uncertainty comes into play within each of these approaches, and consequently where the success of social norms might be hindered.

Assessing the effects of pandemic risk on cooperation and social norms using a before-after Covid-19 comparison in two long-term experiments.

How does threat from disease shape our cooperative actions and the social norms that guide such behaviour? To study these questions, we draw on a collective-risk social dilemma experiment that we ran before the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic (Wave 1, 2018) and compare this to its exact replication, sampling from the same population, that we conducted during the first wave of the pandemic (Wave 2, 2020). Tightness-looseness theory predicts and evidence generally supports that both cooperation and accompanying social norms should increase, yet, we mostly did not find this. Contributions, the probability of reaching the threshold (cooperation), and the contents of the social norm (how much people should contribute) remained similar across the waves, although the strength of these social norms were slightly greater in Wave 2.

Social norm change: drivers and consequences.

Social norms research is booming. In recent years, several experts have recommended using social norms (unwritten rules that prescribe what people ought or ought not to do) to confront the societal, environmental and health challenges our societies face. If we are to do so, a better understanding is required of how social norms themselves emerge, evolve and respond to these challenges.

Risk, sanctions and norm change: the formation and decay of social distancing norms.

Global challenges like the climate crisis and pandemic outbreaks require collective responses where people quickly adapt to changing circumstances. Social norms are potential solutions, but only if they themselves are flexible enough. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a unique opportunity to study norm formation and decay in real-world contexts.