Norm Enforcement Research Articles

Why are some nations more entrepreneurial than others? Investigating the link between cultural tightness–looseness and rates of new firm formation

AbstractResearch SummaryWe evaluate the role of cultural tightness–looseness as an explanation for cross‐cultural variation in new firm formation rates. Modeling cultural tightness–looseness as an antecedent for individual entrepreneurial dispositions and informal institutions, we examine its impact on the number of new limited‐liability companies registered per 1000 people and the rate of new entrepreneurs in the working‐age population. Our findings show that cultural tightness–looseness explains 56% of the variation in new firm formation rates in a sample of 156 nations, and 71% of the variation in the rate of new entrepreneurs in the 50 US states, with greater cultural looseness corresponding to higher rates of entrepreneurship, on average. This effect is robust to various model specifications, measures, and controls for other cultural dimensions.Managerial SummaryOur study examines how cultural tightness–looseness impacts new firm formation rates across nations and US states. We find that cultural looseness, characterized by flexible social norms, significantly influences entrepreneurial activity. Specifically, it explains 56% of the variation in new firm formation rates across 156 nations and 71% of the variation in new entrepreneur rates in the 50 US states. Nations and states with looser cultures tend to have higher rates of entrepreneurship. These findings are robust across different model specifications, measures, and control variables. Managers and policymakers should consider the strength and enforcement of social norms as factors in fostering new firm formation.

Role of Awards and Punishments in managing English-only norms in Schools

How do rewards and punishments influence the enforcement of English-only norms in educational institutions, and what are the broader implications for students' linguistic rights, psychological health, and academic achievement?

Saving cosmopolitanism from colonialism

ABSTRACT Cosmopolitanism – the view that moral concern, and consequently moral duties, are not limited by borders – seems to justify colonialism with a ‘civilizing’ mission, because it supports the enforcement of moral norms universally, with no distinctions between territories, and settler colonialism, because it promotes ideas like common ownership of the Earth and open borders. I argue that existing attempts to defend cosmopolitanism from this worry fail, and that instead the cosmopolitan should embrace a cosmopolitan instrumentalist defence. According to cosmopolitan instrumentalism, colonialism is wrong (when it is wrong) for instrumental reasons: it has all sorts of terrible effects. There is nothing per se wrong with colonialism itself, so cosmopolitanism need not worry about licencing it in principle. There is much that is wrong with colonialism in practice, so cosmopolitanism can easily condemn colonialism as egregiously wrong, although it cannot condemn it as per se or necessarily wrong.

Enforcement of the Code of Ethics for 2024 Election Organizers in Indonesia: A Substantive Justice Perspective

This study employs a normative legal research approach focusing on conceptual and legislative analysis. Its aim is to examine the dynamics of the enforcement of the electoral organizers’ code of ethics by the Indonesian Election Supervisory Agency (DKPP) and to formulate a reconstruction of this enforcement aimed at achieving substantive justice. The findings assert that the enforcement dynamics of the electoral organizers’ code of ethics by DKPP inherently pose two main issues. Internally, the enforcement requires oversight and public participation to ensure DKPP’s credibility and integrity in upholding the code of ethics. Externally, issues arise regarding the final and binding nature of DKPP decisions, which have been undermined by Constitutional Court rulings, allowing for their annulment by judicial bodies such as the Administrative Court (PTUN). Reconstruction or reform efforts concerning the enforcement of the electoral code of ethics for electoral administrators, based on substantive justice, necessitate a clear affirmation of the independence of ethical norms, particularly those related to the conduct of electoral administrators. This includes ensuring that the enforcement of these ethical norms is immune from legal norms and external intervention. Additionally, there is a need for a revision of the electoral laws in Indonesia to enhance the appeal process for ethical judgments rendered by the Election Supervisory Board (DKPP), which are final and binding and cannot be overturned by the courts, especially the Administrative Court (PTUN).

Cultural Differences Predict Palliative Care Development Across the United States: The Role of Cultural Tightness and Looseness

Across the United States, some regions demonstrate greater readiness to adopt palliative care than others. This geographic variation in access and utilization may be due to cultural variation in “tightness” and “looseness,” which can be understood as the relative strength and enforcement of social norms and behavioral constraint within a culture. The present study examined the influence of cultural tightness-looseness on access to palliative care (i.e., statewide percentage of hospitals with palliative care programs) across the 50 U.S. states while controlling for demographic covariates. Results of regression analyses demonstrated that states with looser cultures (i.e., less adherence to norms) had better palliative care access (β = .501, p = .012). Additionally, access was better in states with greater proportions of female (β = .455, p = .004) and white, non-Hispanic or Latino/a (β = .359, p = .002) residents. Strategies to improve utilization should consider the influence of culture and the relative strength of existing social norms within the region.

Standing Up to the Maskless: Antecedents of Norm Enforcement Behavior and Meta-Norm Misperception During COVID-19 at a College Campus

Extending theorization on bystander intervention, this study examined antecedents of upstanding, a communication practice in which bystanders communicate disapproval to norm violators, using the context of mask wearing during COVID-19. Survey findings from undergraduate students revealed that perceived legitimacy of intervention played a key role in decisions to stand up to mask norm violators. In addition, anticipation of hostile responses from the confronted party and bystander indifference discouraged upstanding behavior or intentions. Participants also expected to receive less support from bystanders in a hypothetical episode as an upstander than what they intended to offer an upstander as a bystander.

International Human Rights Law: Enforcement Mechanisms and Challenges in a Globalized World

A glimmer of hope in the fight for the promotion and protection of human dignity and basic human rights is international human rights law (IHRL). individuals worldwide. Yet, its efficacy depends heavily on the robustness of enforcement mechanisms and their adaptation to the complexities of a globalized world. This paper explores the various enforcement mechanisms within IHRL, ranging from international treaties and conventions to regional human rights bodies and domestic legal systems. It delves into the challenges facing these mechanisms, including issues of jurisdiction, state sovereignty, political will, and resource constraints. Moreover, it examines how globalization, with its interconnectedness and transnational nature, both facilitates and complicates the enforcement of human rights norms. The paper concludes by highlighting the need for enhanced cooperation among states, international organizations, civil society actors, and other stakeholders to overcome these challenges and ensure the effective enforcement of IHRL in a rapidly evolving global landscape.

HIV-related public stigma in the era of “Undetectable = Untransmittable”: a population-based study in Hong Kong

BackgroundWhile global efforts are increasingly relying upon biomedical advancements such as antiretroviral therapy and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) to end the HIV epidemic, HIV-related stigma remains a concern. This study aimed to assess the general public’s awareness and perception of “Undetectable = Untransmittable” (U = U) and PrEP, and the patterns of public stigma towards people living with HIV (PLWH) and their determinants in an Asian Pacific city.MethodsA population-based, self-administrated online survey was conducted between 10–20 March 2023. All adults aged ≥ 18 years and currently living in Hong Kong were eligible. Participants’ socio-demographic characteristics, awareness and perception of U = U and PrEP, as well as HIV-related stigma drivers, experience and practices were collected. Latent class analysis was used to delineate population subgroups based on their stigma profiles as reflected by 1.) fear of infection, 2.) concern about socioeconomic ramification of the disease, 3.) social norm enforcement, 4.) perceived stigma in the community, and 5.) stigmatising behaviours and discriminatory attitudes. Memberships of identified subgroups were then correlated with sociodemographic factors, awareness and perception of U = U and PrEP, using multinominal logistic regression.ResultsResponses from a total of 3070 participants (55% male; 79% aged 18–54) were analysed. A majority, 69% and 81%, indicated that they had never heard of U = U and PrEP respectively, and only 39–40% of participants perceived these to be effective in protection from HIV. Four distinct subgroups were identified, namely “Low stigma” (37%), “Modest stigma” (24%), “Moderate stigma” (24%), and “High stigma” (15%). Compared with “Low stigma”, lack of awareness of and/or negative perceptions towards U = U and/or PrEP, not knowing any PLWH were associated with increased odds of higher stigma group membership. Lower educational level and not in employment were associated with increased odds of membership in “Moderate stigma” and “High stigma”. While older people were more likely to belong to “High stigma”, female were more likely to belong to “Moderate stigma”. “Modest stigma” included more younger people who were economically active.ConclusionTwo-thirds of participants endorsed modest-to-high HIV-related stigma, suggesting the prevalence of HIV-related stigma was high among the general population in Hong Kong. Tailored interventions targeting specific stigma drivers and manifestations of individuals as reflected from the stigma profiles of distinct subgroups could form an important strategy for stigma reduction.

"Being Queer, It Was Really Isolating": Stigma and Mental Health Among Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (LGBTQ+) Young People During COVID-19.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, and other sexual and gender minority (LGBTQ+) youth and young adults (YYAs) have poorer mental health outcomes than their cisgender, heterosexual peers in large part due to multilevel stigmatization and minority stress. This was exacerbated by psychological stressors stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic; these experiences intersected with YYA unique developmental stage. Here we explored LGBTQ+ YYA's pandemic-related experiences, focusing on intersections between stigma and belonging, developmental processes, and their relationship to mental health. We conducted qualitative interviews from August to November 2021 with 34 LGBTQ+ YYA ages 14 to 24; interviews were nested within a quantitative study on YYA experiences during COVID-19. Interviews were transcribed and coded using thematic analysis. YYA described how pandemic impacts like quarantine and isolation directly impacted their mental health; these coalesced around four types of thematic shifts: shifts in (1) time, (2) living situations, (3) community supports, and (4) social and political climate. Multilevel stigmatization also created new mechanisms of norm enforcement for LGBTQ+ YYA. Interviews demonstrated how the pandemic also impacted key developmental processes including identity formation and autonomy seeking. The potential consequences of these pandemic-related shifts largely depended on YYA's experiences of stigma and/or belonging throughout the pandemic. Findings suggested that isolation from the COVID-19 pandemic intersected with existing socio-ecological structures in LGBTQ+ young people's lives. Efforts to investigate longitudinal impacts of the pandemic, as well as to intervene to reduce the stigmatization experienced by LGBTQ+ YYA, remain urgent.

The Enforcement of Political Norms

Abstract Democracies generate norms prescribing what behaviours and preferences are deemed acceptable. But what keeps these political norms in place? We expect that they are enforced by observers who disapprove of norm-breaching behaviour and are willing to apply sanctions that make it socially costly. We test this expectation with a survey in Spain, where respondents were shown pictures of individuals with different political views. We focus on norms against radical-right preferences, one of the most established political norms. In line with our expectations, individuals disapprove of radical-right preferences more than other political preferences. This makes them more likely to socially sanction those preferences, which they do mainly in indirect ways that do not force interaction with the person breaching the norm. We provide evidence on the individual-level predictors of norm enforcement. Our findings highlight the micro-level mechanisms by which social influence affects the behaviour of democratic citizens.

Self-regulatory resources and institutional formation: An experiment

A novel laboratory experiment is used to show that the state of people’s self-regulatory resources influences their reliance on the formal enforcement of norms in a social dilemma. The subjects’ self-regulatory resources are manipulated using well-known depletion tasks. On the one hand, when their resources are not depleted, most decide to govern themselves through decentralized, peer-to-peer punishment in a public goods dilemma, and then achieve high cooperation norms. On the other hand, when the resources are limited, the majority enact a costly formal sanctioning institution; backed by formal punishment, the groups achieve strong cooperation. A supplementary survey on the Covid-19 pandemic was conducted to enhance the external validity of the findings, generating a similar pattern while revealing that people’s desire to commit, not their beliefs about others’ behavior without formal enforcement, drives their institutional preferences. Self-control preference theories, combined with inequity aversion, can explain these patterns because they predict that those with limited self-control are motivated to remove temptations in advance as a commitment device.

Vicarious punishment of moral violations in naturalistic drama narratives predicts cortical synchronization

Punishment of moral norm violators is instrumental for human cooperation. Yet, social and affective neuroscience research has primarily focused on second- and third-party norm enforcement, neglecting the neural architecture underlying observed (vicarious) punishment of moral wrongdoers. We used naturalistic television drama as a sampling space for observing outcomes of morally-relevant behaviors to assess how individuals cognitively process dynamically evolving moral actions and their consequences. Drawing on Affective Disposition Theory, we derived hypotheses linking character morality with viewers’ neural processing of characters’ rewards and punishments. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine neural responses of 28 female participants while free-viewing 15 short story summary video clips of episodes from a popular US television soap opera. Each summary included a complete narrative structure, fully crossing main character behaviors (moral/immoral) and the consequences (reward/punishment) characters faced for their actions. Narrative engagement was examined via intersubject correlation and representational similarity analysis. Highest cortical synchronization in 9 specifically selected regions previously implicated in processing moral information was observed when characters who act immorally are punished for their actions with participants’ empathy as an important moderator. The results advance our understanding of the moral brain and the role of normative considerations and character outcomes in viewers’ engagement with popular narratives.

Conditional Effects of the Spotlight: Electoral Institutions and the Enforcement of Global Corporate Norms

Abstract Under what conditions do governments discipline powerful multinational companies for breaching global corporate norms? Existing international relations theories have shown that peer monitoring and transnational advocacy are crucial strategies that shine a spotlight on norm violations. Despite the importance of those strategies, governments in the Global North have not consistently condemned their home-grown multinational companies for breaking norms related to climate or human rights in the Global South. This paper argues that the effect of such spotlighting is crucially moderated by electoral institutions, and legislators in proportional representation systems are more likely than those in majoritarian systems to push multinational companies to comply with global norms when such issues are in the spotlight. I find supporting evidence from the OECD Guidelines’ Specific Instance process and case studies. This article shows that traditional strategies to promote norm compliance, such as transnational advocacy and peer pressure, work differently in different countries, and electoral systems in the Global North can have unintended distributional consequences for norm beneficiaries.

Unpacking Anti-femininity Among Masculine Identifying STEM Students with Minoritized Identities of Sexuality and Gender

While decades of scholarship show the oppression of women by the enforcement of patriarchal gender norms, little research has explored the ways in which masculinity receives preferential treatment over femininity, independent of a man/woman binary. This exploration is needed to understand why femininity is devalued within the heteropatriarchal masculine social context under which much of current Western society was formed. In response to this anti-femininity sentiment, an emerging area of study called critical femininity was developed to add unique insights into the way in which femininity is embodied and rejected across genders. In this paper, critical femininity is used to explore how masculine-identifying science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students holding minoritized identities of sexuality and/or gender (MIoSG) experience and navigate their campus environments that are steeped in anti-femininity. Only by documenting complex understandings of how men and masculine-identifying STEM individuals (who are the majority of STEM learners and faculty) learn, enact, and reproduce anti-femininity can educators begin to resist and alter harmful patriarchal STEM environments.

The presence of laws and mandates is associated with increased social norm enforcement

Policy makers often implement laws or mandates to attempt to change people’s behavior. Such policies act not only as deterrents, but also as societal signposts for what is considered morally right and wrong within a society. In this paper we argue that the presence of laws and mandates may be associated with citizens’ inclination to engage in social norm enforcement within their own network. We studied this using four different datasets in different settings (text-and-drive laws, influenza vaccination mandates, speed limit laws, and COVID-19 mask mandates), in three different countries (total N = 3,156). In all datasets, we found associations between mandates or laws and the inclination to socially confront norm violators. This is in line with our theorizing that mandates and laws may help to increase citizens’ inclination to engage in social norm enforcement, and to foster interpersonal policing of behavior, inviting future research to establish more direct causal conclusions in this regard.

Cross-societal variation in norm enforcement systems.

Across human societies, people are sometimes willing to punish norm violators. Such punishment can take the form of revenge from victims, seemingly altruistic intervention from third parties, or legitimized sanctioning from institutional representatives. Although prior work has documented cross-cultural regularities in norm enforcement, substantial variation exists in the prevalence and forms of punishment across societies. Such cross-societal variation may arise from universal psychological mechanisms responding to different socio-ecological conditions, or from cultural evolutionary processes, resulting in different norm enforcement systems. To date, empirical evidence from comparative studies across diverse societies has remained disconnected, owing to a lack of interdisciplinary integration and a prevalent tendency of empirical studies to focus on different underpinnings of variation in norm enforcement. To provide a more complete view of the shared and unique aspects of punishment across societies, we review prior research in anthropology, economics and psychology, and take a first step towards integrating the plethora of socio-ecological and cultural factors proposed to explain cross-societal variation in norm enforcement. We conclude by discussing how future cross-societal research can use diverse methodologies to illuminate key questions on the domain-specificity of punishment, the diversity of tactics supporting social norms, and their role in processes of norm change. This article is part of the theme issue 'Social norm change: drivers and consequences'.

Enforcement of Fairness Norms by Punishment: A Comparison of Gains and Losses.

Although in everyday life decisions about losses are prevalent (e.g., the climate crisis and the COVID-19 crisis), there is hardly any research on decisions in the loss domain. Therefore, we conducted online experiments with a sample of 672 participants (mostly students), using third-party punishment dictator games (DGs) in the loss domain to explore the impact of losses and punishment threats on the conformity to the fairness norm. Subjects in the treatment condition have to divide a loss of -10 € with the threat of a third-party punishment with different strengths (control: gains, no punishment). Overall, the statistical evidence seems rather weak, but when it comes to losses, subjects are more rational and straightforward with their words and deeds than with gains. Therefore, in the loss domain, subjects are more likely to believe that the fairness norm should be followed, and they subjectively perceive that the others do as well. Furthermore, although dictators' decisions are more selfish in the loss domain, dictators there react more strongly to the punishment threat by reducing their demands than in the gains domain. This holds as long as the punishment threat is strong enough, as judged from a rational perspective.

Norm enforcement on and of Reddit: Rules of engagement and participation

The social platform Reddit hosts a set of communities that denounce offensive behavior, invoking scrutiny and shame on (categories of) individuals. Despite varying in their targets, they all promote actionable content to an audience who can view, share and comment on it. These groups allow a global public to air grievances, enabling both accountability and abuse. Following high profile scandals, Reddit routinely sanctions and purges problematic ‘subreddits’. As a matter of self-preservation, subreddits that watch over the public also maintain heightened scrutiny of their own members. Group rules and other prescriptive texts are a means to instill this scrutiny among a broader audience. In analyzing rules and other content management practices in 68 shaming based subreddits, this paper considers how these groups temper platform-based denunciation.

Cooperation and norm enforcement differ strongly across adult generations

Cooperation of different generations is crucial to meet many important societal challenges, including climate change or the sustainability of the welfare state. Little is known, however, about different generations’ ability to cooperate in social dilemma situations, and their willingness to enforce social norms of cooperation. We present an experiment with two generations – juniors in their 20ies, and seniors who are 50 years or older, with an average age of 67. They play a repeated prisoner's dilemma (PD) game with third-party punishment. The third party is either a person from the same generation as the players in the PD game or from the other generation, and this is common knowledge. We find that seniors cooperate twice as much as juniors do, irrespective of the generation of the third-party. Moreover, seniors are much stricter as third parties and punish norm violations much more frequently than juniors do. However, the cooperation levels of both generations react hardly to third party punishment, which means that both generations differ strongly in their attempts to enforce norms of cooperation and in their reaction to norm enforcement. These differences across generations may pose a serious threat for the solution of intergenerational problems.

История возникновения и развития российского уголовного законодательства об ответственности за неисполнение приговора суда, решения суда или иного судебного акта

Understanding the legal value of justice as a type of state activity, during which the function of social control is carried out and the proper degree of uniform behavior of citizens is ensured, was achieved only during the evolutionary development of society in the process of improving the legislative mechanism and increasing the value of normative regulation of relations in the field of administration of justice. At the same time, an important guarantee of the effective implementation of judicial power is the principle of universally binding judicial acts. This principle ensures the ordering of social relations through the enforcement of legal norms. In this regard, the current law provides for criminal liability for non-execution of judicial acts (sentences, decisions, etc.). This criminal law prohibition is not an arbitrary act of the legislator; its formation and development are directly related to the process of formation of social relations. At the same time, criminal legal ensured the protection of a judicial act from non-execution means not at all stages of the historical development of society. The emergence of this norm is due to a number of interrelated and interdependent factors, among which the most important are, firstly, the level of organization of the mechanism of state power, and secondly, the complication of the system of state bodies and the separation of justice bodies in it. It is through the prism of these factors that an analysis of legislation on criminal liability for non-execution of judicial acts is necessary. The subject of research within the framework of this article is the historical background of the process of formation and development in the pre-Soviet and Soviet periods of criminal legislation, providing for liability for failure to comply with a court verdict, court decision or other judicial act. It is concluded that the criminal legal protection of relations arising in the sphere of execution of judicial acts largely depended on the mechanism for the implementation of judicial power and the models of execution of court decisions determined by this mechanism. In the process of historical development of Russian statehood and legislation, the nature and methods of exercising judicial and executive (administrative) power underwent changes, the established procedure for the execution of judicial acts in civil and criminal cases, as well as the criminal law mechanism for its (procedure) protection, underwent corresponding changes.