Social Norms

Catalog description

This course focuses on the nature of norms, that is, patterns of behavior, often supported by moralistic attitudes and punishment mechanisms, that establish mutual expectations. The first part of the course draws on work by Edna Ullmann-Margalit and Christina Bicchieri to provide definitions and classifications of different kinds of norms. The second part studies how such norms emerge through cultural evolutionary processes. Part three of the course explores how we can measure, evaluate, and modify norms. And part four studies how norms interact with other social and political institutions.