Editing Social norm (section)

==Definition==
[[File:Tennis shake hands after match.jpg|thumb|Shaking hands after a [[sports]] match is an example of a social norm.]]
There are varied definitions of social norms, but there is agreement among scholars that norms are:<ref name=":7">{{Cite journal|last1=Legros|first1=Sophie|last2=Cislaghi|first2=Beniamino|date=2020|title=Mapping the Social-Norms Literature: An Overview of Reviews|url=https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619866455|journal=Perspectives on Psychological Science|language=en|volume=15|issue=1|pages=62–80|doi=10.1177/1745691619866455|issn=1745-6916|pmc=6970459|pmid=31697614}}</ref>

# social and shared among members of a group,
# related to behaviors and shape decision-making,
# proscriptive or prescriptive
# socially acceptable way of living by a group of people in a society.

In 1965, Jack P. Gibbs identified three basic normative dimensions that all concepts of norms could be subsumed under:

# "a collective evaluation of behavior in terms of what it ''ought'' to be"
# "a collective expectation as to what behavior ''will be''"
# "particular ''reactions'' to behavior" (including attempts sanction or induce certain conduct)<ref name=":10">{{Cite journal|last=Gibbs|first=Jack P.|date=1965|title=Norms: The Problem of Definition and Classification|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2774978|journal=American Journal of Sociology|volume=70|issue=5|pages=586–594|doi=10.1086/223933|jstor=2774978|pmid=14269217|s2cid=27377450|issn=0002-9602|access-date=2021-12-23|archive-date=2021-12-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211223225756/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2774978|url-status=live}}</ref>

According to Ronald Jepperson, [[Peter J. Katzenstein|Peter Katzenstein]] and [[Alexander Wendt]], "norms are collective expectations about proper behavior for a given identity."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Katzenstein|first=Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bPjkBhKWBOsC|title=The Culture of National Security: Norms and Identity in World Politics|date=1996|publisher=Columbia University Press|isbn=978-0-231-10469-2|pages=54|language=en|access-date=2021-09-20|archive-date=2021-09-30|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210930174758/https://books.google.com/books?id=bPjkBhKWBOsC|url-status=live}}</ref> Wayne Sandholtz argues against this definition, as he writes that shared expectations are an ''effect'' of norms, not an intrinsic quality of norms.<ref name=":5" /> Sandholtz, [[Martha Finnemore]] and [[Kathryn Sikkink]] define norms instead as "standards of appropriate behavior for actors with a given identity."<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":1" /> In this definition, norms have an "oughtness" quality to them.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":1" />

Michael Hechter and Karl-Dieter Opp define norms as "cultural phenomena that prescribe and proscribe behavior in specific circumstances."<ref name=":9">{{Cite book|last1=Hecher|first1=Michael|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/9781610442800|title=Social Norms|last2=Opp|first2=Karl-Dieter|date=2001|publisher=Russell Sage Foundation|isbn=978-0-87154-354-7|pages=xi|jstor=10.7758/9781610442800|access-date=2021-05-22|archive-date=2021-05-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210522201327/https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/9781610442800|url-status=live}}</ref> Sociologists Christine Horne and Stefanie Mollborn define norms as "group-level evaluations of behavior."<ref name=":6">{{Cite journal|last1=Horne|first1=Christine|last2=Mollborn|first2=Stefanie|date=2020|title=Norms: An Integrated Framework|url=https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054658|journal=Annual Review of Sociology|language=en|volume=46|issue=1|pages=467–487|doi=10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054658|s2cid=225435025|issn=0360-0572|access-date=2021-05-22|archive-date=2021-05-16|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210516025555/https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-soc-121919-054658|url-status=live}}</ref> This entails that norms are widespread expectations of social approval or disapproval of behavior.<ref name=":6" /> Scholars debate whether social norms are individual constructs or collective constructs.<ref name=":7" />

Economist and game theorist [[Peyton Young]] defines norms as "patterns of behavior that are self-enforcing within a group."<ref name=":8" /> He emphasizes that norms are driven by shared expectations: "Everyone conforms, everyone is expected to conform, and everyone wants to conform when they expect everyone else to conform."<ref name=":8" /> He characterizes norms as devices that "coordinate people's expectations in interactions that possess multiple equilibria."<ref>{{Citation|last=Young|first=H. Peyton|title=Social Norms|date=2016|url=https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2338-1|work=The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics|pages=1–7|place=London|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK|language=en|doi=10.1057/978-1-349-95121-5_2338-1|isbn=978-1-349-95121-5|s2cid=13026974 |access-date=2021-05-22}}</ref>

Concepts such as "conventions", "customs", "morals", "mores", "rules", and "laws" have been characterized as equivalent to norms.<ref name=":10"/> Institutions can be considered collections or clusters of multiple norms.<ref name=":1" /> Rules and norms are not necessarily distinct phenomena: both are standards of conduct that can have varying levels of specificity and formality.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6" /> Laws are a highly formal version of norms.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Knight|first=Jack|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1127523562|title=Institutions and social conflict|date=1992|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-511-52817-0|pages=1–2|oclc=1127523562}}</ref><ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Streeck|first1=Wolfgang|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s16hvDNAytQC|title=Beyond Continuity: Institutional Change in Advanced Political Economies|last2=Thelen|first2=Kathleen Ann|date=2005|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-928046-9|pages=14|language=en}}</ref> Laws, rules and norms may be at odds; for example, a law may prohibit something but norms still allow it.<ref name=":6" /> Norms are not the equivalent of an aggregation of individual attitudes.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Horne|first1=Christine|last2=Johnson|first2=Monica Kirkpatrick|date=2021|title=Testing an Integrated Theory: Distancing Norms in the Early Months of Covid-19|journal=Sociological Perspectives|volume=64|issue=5|pages=970–987|language=en|doi=10.1177/07311214211005493|issn=0731-1214|doi-access=free}}</ref> Ideas, attitudes and values are not necessarily norms, as these concepts do not necessarily concern behavior and may be held privately.<ref name=":3" /><ref name=":6" /> "Prevalent behaviors" and behavioral regularities are not necessarily norms.<ref name=":6" /><ref name=":7" /> Instinctual or biological reactions, personal tastes, and personal habits are not necessarily norms.<ref name=":7" />