Violation Of Social Norms Research Articles

Rejecting unfairness enhances the implicit sense of agency in the human brain

Sense of agency (SoA) describes the feeling of control over one’s actions and their consequences. One proposed index of implicit SoA is temporal compression, which refers to the phenomenon that voluntary actions and their outcomes are perceived as closer in time than they actually are. The present study measured temporal compression in the social norm violation situation. In two experiments participants joined in an Ultimatum game (UG), in which they were presented with offers that varied in fairness and they could choose to accept or reject the offers by pressing buttons. A neutral sound would occur after their choices in the UG and the participants had to estimate the time interval between their button pressing and the occurrence of the sound, and EEG signals were recorded during the task. Experiment 1 demonstrated that rejecting unfair offers decreased the perceived interval between action and outcome compared to accepting fair offers, suggesting a higher level of SoA after rejecting unfair offers. Experiment 2 replicated these results and further revealed an attenuated N1 in response to the sound following rejections of unfairness. Taken together, these results highlight the importance of social norms in affecting people’s behaviors and agency experiences.

Partisan Differences in Voters’ Desire for Punishment in Response to Politicians’ Moral Transgressions

Research shows that politicians are often not electorally punished for immoral behavior. Yet, voters may still desire to see politicians punished outside of the election context for committing moral transgressions. Moreover, these desires may be conditioned by the partisanship of the voter, the transgressor, and voters’ perceptions of moral violation severity. To examine such effects, we conduct a vignette study asking 2997 U. S. respondents to consider politicians’ moral violations. We randomly varied the moral principle violated (Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Sanctity, and a social norm violation) and the partisanship of the politician (Republic/Democrat/Nonpartisan). When voters perceive the severity of a moral violation to be low, Republicans express a stronger desire to punish than do Democrats. Republicans’ desire for punishment depends on the group of the transgressor, with higher levels of punitiveness desired for out-party transgressors than in-party. However, when voters perceive severity to be moderate or high, Democrats have the stronger desire to punish the politician involved, but they show no in-party bias. Across the moral violations presented, Republicans and Democrats differ in perceptions of severity of politicians’ immoral behavior. Results show partisan voters’ heterogeneity in punitiveness, with the relationship strongly mediated by perceived severity of the moral violation.

I Am Not a Hero: How Heroic Action Divorces the Hero from the Political Community

Most people who perform a heroic act will, afterward, deny that their actions were heroic and claim that anyone would have done the same, even though that is demonstrably false (and, often, others were present who failed to act heroically at all). The literature on the psychology of heroism has never investigated why this is. This theoretical paper proposes an answer and seeks to provoke exploration of a previously unexplored topic. We note that people who undertake heroic action face a unique conflict: they embody their community’s highest values, while simultaneously breaking norms to stand apart from that community. We hypothesize that this conflict takes a psychological toll and is at the heart of a hero’s self-effacing denial. In this paper, we argue that (a) acting heroically is, by definition, committing a violation of social norms and therefore standing apart from the political community; (b) in the moment, heroic agents are willing to violate norms to serve a higher social value (such as saving a life), but afterward they feel the full emotional weight of acting in a non-normative manner; and (c) heroes’ eagerness to downplay or generalize their heroic action is not merely an act of humility, but an attempt to seek readmission to the community and the status of being “normal.” We believe that exploration of this topic can provide insight on what prevents people from acting heroically when needed, and we discuss why alternative possibilities such as humility and modesty are not sufficient explanations.

Context Modulates Perceived Fairness in Altruistic Punishment: Neural Signatures from ERPs and EEG Oscillations.

Social norms and altruistic punitive behaviours are both based on the integration of information from multiple contexts. Individual behavioural performance can be altered by loss and gain contexts, which produce different mental states and subjective perceptions. In this study, we used event-related potential and time-frequency techniques to examine performance on a third-party punishment task and to explore the neural mechanisms underlying context-dependent differences in punishment decisions. The results indicated that individuals were more likely to reject unfairness in the context of loss (vs. gain) and to increase punishment as unfairness increased. In contrast, fairness appeared to cause an early increase in cognitive control signal enhancement, as indicated by the P2 amplitude and theta oscillations, and a later increase in emotional and motivational salience during decision-making in gain vs. loss contexts, as indicated by the medial frontal negativity and beta oscillations. In summary, individuals were more willing to sanction violations of social norms in the loss context than in the gain context and rejecting unfair losses induced more equity-related cognitive conflict than accepting unfair gains, highlighting the importance of context (i.e., gain vs. loss) in equity-related social decision-making processes.

Influence of perceived social support on detection of social norm violation: evidence from N1 and N400.

The perceived social support individuals receive from their others plays a crucial role in shaping conformity with social norms. However, the specific mechanism underlying perceived social support and the detection of social norms remains unclear. In this study, college students with high and low levels of perceived social support were asked to judge the appropriateness of stranger's behaviors (e.g., singing) in different situations (e.g., library). The participants' electroencephalography activities were analyzed aiming to uncover the neural mechanism underlying how perceived social support influences the detection of others' normative behavior. The ERP results indicate that, for individuals with a lower level of perceived social support, larger amplitudes of the N1 component (related to primary processing) and the N400 component (related to cognitive conflict) were observed when detecting others' social norm violation compared to the conformity condition. However, for individuals with a higher level of perceived social support, no significant differences were found in detecting others' conformity or violation of social norms. The results indicate that, when the perceived social support level of the individual is low, detecting others' social norm violation elicits deeper primary processing and stronger cognitive conflict compared to conformity condition.

Mapping Personality Traits and Gender-Based Stereotypes on Perceived Negotiation Skills

Implementing effective dispute resolution strategies such as negotiation has proved to be quite effective whenever there is a divergence of interest between two conflicting groups. This study aims to see if gender-based stereotypes or specific personality traits can positively or negatively influence negotiation skills in an attempt to improve the negotiation process, whereby individuals could be trained to adopt specific behaviors to obtain more favorable negotiation results. Using the expectancy violation theory (EVT) to analyze how individuals respond to unanticipated violations of social norms and expectations whilst negotiating, a quantitative study was carried out among legal officers working in private, public, and parastatal organizations in Mauritius. The sample size, 270, was calculated based on a population size of 899 as per records of the Mauritius Bar Council. The results demonstrate most legal officers were equipped with good negotiation skills, with no significant difference between males and females (U = 1138.50, p > 0.05), while a high level of neuroticism was indicative of poor negotiation skills (τb = −0.167, p > 0.05). These findings demonstrate that participants agreed that their negotiation skills were influenced in gender-dominated meetings which align with the principles of the EVT, the violation of certain expected negotiation behavior based on gender impact negotiation outcomes. Since negotiation skills were significantly associated with negotiation outcomes (χ2(4) = 37.963, p < 0.05), this provides pointers to businesses on how to improve and optimize negotiation outcomes by choosing a negotiator with the most apt personality traits.

Comparison Of Sanctions For The Crime Of Adultery In Toraja Customary Law And National Law In Indonesia

This research aims to analyze the comparison of sanctions for the crime of adultery in the context of Toraja customary law and national law in Indonesia. Adultery is a violation of social norms that has legal implications, but handling can differ between customary law and national law. The research method used is a descriptive-analytical approach by collecting data from primary and secondary sources. The research results show that in Toraja customary law, sanctions for the crime of adultery tend to be restorative in nature and involve customary deliberation to achieve reconciliation between the parties concerned. On the other hand, national law in Indonesia regulates sanctions for the crime of adultery through criminal law instruments with the potential for a prison sentence. This comparison provides an in-depth understanding of the differences in approaches between customary law and national law in dealing with the crime of adultery. The implications include the need for harmonization or synchronization between customary law and national law to ensure justice and sustainability of legal norms in society. This research can be the basis for improving legal regulations that are more inclusive and in line with local values and community needs.

OPPORTUNISTIC DEXTERITY OR FLEXIBLE INTELLIGENCE?: CONTEMPLATING THE NATURE OF AMBIVALENCE INTRINSIC TO TRICKSTER ARCHETYPE FIGURES IN TRIBAL FOLKTALES OF JHARKHAND

Trickster figures are absolutely universal and they are creations of human collective unconsciousness. And advantageously as well disadvantageously they are not defined (confined) by any single characteristics as they are multifaceted entities, multiform beings and polytropos, with the accumulation of different qualities/features (such as ‘astuteness’, ‘ambivalence’, ‘wit’, ‘clever’, ‘cunning’, ‘tricky’, ‘creative falsehood’, ‘deceitful’ or ‘camouflage’, ‘clown’, ‘coward’, ‘cheat’, ‘humorous’, ‘brave’, etc.) and different forms (gods, demons, humans, animals), depending on the nature and requirement of the narrative programmes. Apart from being the fictional archfigures found in world mythology, folkloric materials and popular culture, the everyday social life of people is filled with the experiences of real tricksters, socially recognized antics of persons who enjoy mixed attributes of cleverness (i.e., good and bad), complementary to the logical rationality and being part of the periphery of their communities and not outside of the communities. Unlike mythological tricksters who are gods, demons, spirits and other supernatural beings, some of them are even known for having voracious appetites for food and bodily pleasure apart from being shape-shifters, rebellious and supreme boundary-crossers, their counterparts in folktales are simple, comprehensible, deliberate violators of social rules and norms, and cultural as well natural. A vast amount of trickster folktales is available in almost all languages across India. However, this study picks a few folktales from the tribal communities of Jharkhand, and the ‘tribal folktales’ is used as a category, a unit for analysis or a semiosphere to investigate the nature and interconnectedness of various elements associated with the trickster folktales. Grouped under four themes based on the actions of the protagonists or antagonists, this study proceeds to construct the nature and availability of oxymoronic figures as fundamental interdependent elements of these tales. This study reveals that the tribal tales have effectively utilized trickster characters to project the concept of altruism, along with the reflection of local culture and their critical interventions. It also highlights the facts that the trickster figures in these tales bring together two opposite worlds for different purposes through border-crossing which is a common phenomenon as far as the tribal trickster folktales are concerned, and it also reflects their worldview of coexistence attitude and perceiving them as an integral part of the ecosystem. Further, this study implies an essential point that the tricksters found in these tribal folktales perform as semiotic generators who mediate between opposites to allow a kind of cultural articulation of different cultural relationships, evaluate their contradictions and renew their moral and ethical values which are essential for the constitution and dissemination of their behaviour. Finally, this study promises to draw a brief sketch of the nature of tricksters and their social function and also unfolds the reason for the speculation that the tricksters are not enjoying heroic admiration and esteem despite their marvellous and altruistic heroic deeds.

Identifying social norm violation in movie plots: from Borat to American Pie

Abstract The violation of social norms in TV and cinema is a well-known source of humor and catharsis, and researchers in digital humanities may benefit from the automatic identification of social norm violations. In this article, we introduce a novel methodology for identifying and analyzing the violation of social norms in textual data and illustrate it in the analysis of movie plots. The methodology leans on zero-shot classification, specifically relevant when massive, labeled datasets are unavailable. We test our methodology and provide researchers with (1) a theoretically grounded tool for screening textual data for social norm violation and with new datasets that include (2) 6,806 embarrassing situations from movie plots and their hypothesized violated norm and (3) 3,059 movie plots with their average embarrassment score.

Cultural variations in perceptions and reactions to social norm transgressions: a comparative study.

Humans are similar but behave differently, and one main reason is the culture in which they are born and raised. The purpose of this research is to examine how the perception and reaction to those who transgress social norms may vary based on the individualism/collectivism of their culture. A study (N = 398) conducted in the United Kingdom, Spain, and China showed differences in the perception and reaction to incivilities based on individualism/collectivism. People from highly collective countries (China) perceive uncivil transgressors as immoral and enact more social control over them than people from highly individualistic countries (U.K.). They also experience more discomfort when facing uncivil transgressors, and this discomfort mediates the increasing immorality perceived on the agents of incivilities in contrast with people from less collective countries. Our findings provide insights into how cultural factors shape individuals' perceptions of social norm violations and emphasize the importance of considering cultural differences when addressing incivility.

Preventing Violations of Religious and Social Norms: Judicial Interpretation of 'Urgent Reasons' in Marriage Dispensation at the Wonosari Religious Court, Indonesia

Early marriage in Indonesia has garnered attention from international forums, urging the eradication of this practice to safeguard children’s rights. Despite national regulations raising the minimum age of marriage to 19 for both males and females, this practice persists due to legal loopholes allowing marriage dispensations granted by the court. Utilizing a socio-legal approach, this article analyzes 14 verdicts from the Wonosari Religious Court in 2022. The authors find that religious judges employ juridical, theological, psychological, and sociological argumentations in approving marriage dispensations based on three reasons presented by applicants. Among these reasons, two are granted not based on ‘urgent reasons’ but rather on interpretations of Islamic law and prevailing social norms. In-depth interviews with four religious judges handling these cases reveal variations in interpreting ‘urgent reasons’ in the context of marriage dispensations. The authors argue that the interpretation of ‘urgent reasons’ should prioritize the best interests of the child rather than merely considering potential violations of religious and social norms. This study provides profound insights into the dynamics of legal interpretation in the marriage dispensation decision-making process.

Gender of the Apologiser as a Social Factor in the Selection of Apology Strategies

"Politeness" is a culturally defined pattern of language use that enables the speaker to formulate appropriate speech acts like an apology. The speech act of apology is a part of pragmatics study and belongs to expressive speech acts. However, it cannot be separated from sociolinguistics because social factors such as social context, gender, and the participants' relationship can all have an impact on how apologizers make their apologies. The selection of the appropriate formulas of apology strategies to pay off violations of social norms is considered a hard task since it is based on some cultural and social norms. Thus, the present study aims to study the apology strategies used by Iraqi male/female postgraduate students at the University of Anbar, in addition to investigating the effect of gender on the use of polite apology strategies. An oral Discourse Completion Task was used as a data collection instrument, supported by a semi-structured interview. The data has been analysed using the descriptive analysis method, based on Leech’s (2014) classification of apology. The findings revealed that "expressing regret" was the most frequently used apology strategy. Furthermore, both genders used different indirect strategies to support their apologies. Both genders used a new supporting move, which is "admitting responsibility for in-group member’s fault." In conclusion, the gender of the participants has a slight effect on the choice of polite apology strategies. Moreover, social status and age were the most effective social factors as compared to the others.

Does the New Normal Violation of Social Norms? The Role of the Health Belief and Service Quality During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Objectives – The primary goal of this study is to investigate the new social practices in the context of service as regards the violation of the ethical norms during the Covid-19 pandemic. It also aims to educate the public on behavioral changes during the epidemic by utilizing the Health Belief Model (HBM), particularly in banking activities. Methodology– This study was carried out among banking customers in one of East Java’s major cities. A total of 257 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents and a 23-statement instrument was created for the design. The data were collected electronically and then analyzed with AMOS 22.0 using an internet-based computer, assisted with a web interviewing system. Findings –The results showed that: firstly, health beliefs had a significant impact on unusual social norms. This is because most consumers recognized the new normal in the context of service during the epidemic and did not regard it as a breach of societal standards. Secondly, the unusual social norms influenced both the skills of the employees and the morality of customers’ experience. Finally, intimacy and human nature also had an impact on the client’s satisfaction. Conclusion – During the unprecedented Covid-19 outbreak, this study merges the Health Belief Model with the theory of service quality and satisfaction to serve as a new guide for institutions, especially banks.

Does the New Normal Violation of Social Norms? The Role of the Health Belief and Service Quality During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Does the New Normal Violation of Social Norms? The Role of the Health Belief and Service Quality During the Covid-19 Pandemic

AI for identifying social norm violation

Identifying social norms and their violation is a challenge facing several projects in computational science. This paper presents a novel approach to identifying social norm violations. We used GPT-3, zero-shot classification, and automatic rule discovery to develop simple predictive models grounded in psychological knowledge. Tested on two massive datasets, the models present significant predictive performance and show that even complex social situations can be functionally analyzed through modern computational tools.

RESPONSIBLE AGENCY: A HUMAN DISTINCTIVE?

AbstractWhile agent responsibility appears to be one of the clearest examples of a human distinctive, practices of holding responsible are bound up with social expectations and emotional reactions, many of which are shared with other social animals. This essay attends to the ways in which what Peter Strawson first identified as the reactive emotions, including notably anger, resentment, and indignation, are key to making sense of both the shared and distinctive features of responsible human agency. Like human beings, other social animals express a range of reactive emotions in response to others’ conformity with or violation of implicit social expectations and norms; human beings sometimes reflect on these reactive attitudes and their justifiability, asking whether and when it is appropriate to hold others accountable, blame, and/or punish them. We should recognize that we often praise and blame others for attitudes and desires which they have not chosen and over which they have no direct control, and that this is appropriate.

Correlation of resting heart rate with a criminal sentence in young adult incarcerated criminal offenders

Criminal sentence is supposed to be just reflection of the gravity of the violations of social norms by an individual in given circumstances. It therefore should be a reliable base for measurement of antisocial tendencies in offenders. Decades of research consistently show that autonomic under-arousal is a significant predictor of crime, violence and antisocial behaviour (AB). No research to date tried to study relationship between length of criminal sentences and physiological measures of autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity. Our study aimed to check if parameters of criminal sentences are good quantification of antisocial tendencies by correlating it with their known physiological correlate – resting heart rate (HR). We correlated sum of sentences, largest individual sentence and legal limits for most serious offence as documented in criminal records with resting HR in 74 young adult incarcerated criminal offenders aged 18–20. In line with the hypothesis we obtained Pearson’s coefficients of r = -.443; r = -.451 and r = -.397 respectively as well as Spearman’s coefficients ρ = -.408; ρ = -.492 and ρ = -.406 respectively, all significant at p < .001. Our research shows that resting heart rate can be a robust predictor of criminal conduct when the latter is quantified precisely and objectively with criminal records. This directs further research in this field towards measuring AB using methods less sensitive to impression management and informant bias, not relying on self-report but on documented behaviour vides empirical support to the validity of codified principles of criminal law as ways of expressing offenders’ level of social misconduct.

No general pathological significance of aphantasia: An evaluation based on criteria for mental disorders.

As awareness of the phenomenon of aphantasia (= lack of voluntary imagery) has increased in recent years, many psychotherapists ponder its clinical implications. The present study investigates whether aphantasia meets the criteria for mental disorders, i.e. statistical rarity, impairment in activities of daily living, violation of social norms and inappropriate behavior and personal distress. Prevalence of aphantasia was determined meta-analytically based on 3,543 participants. An international sample of 156 participants with aphantasia (58.3% male; Mage =35.23) and 131 controls (65.6% male; Mage =28.88) was assessed with the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test, the Questionnaire for the Assessment of Everyday Memory Performance and the Aphantasia Distress Questionnaire, as well as measures of depression, anxiety and well-being. The prevalence of aphantasia was estimated at 3.5 to 4.8%. Participants with aphantasia scored significantly lower than controls on every day and autobiographical memory, but not on theory of mind. A subgroup of 34.7% of participants with aphantasia reported distress significantly associated with lower well-being and high levels of anxiety and depression. The level of distress increased with poorer performance in autobiographical memory and theory of mind. Although aphantasia meets the criterion of statistical rarity, the impact on activities of daily living and personal distress is too weak to justify a classification as a mental disorder. In a subgroup, however, distress can reach clinically relevant levels. In individual cases, it is therefore advisable to conduct a psychological assessment, for example by means of the Aphantasia Distress Questionnaire.

Theoretical and legal aspects of combating corruption in Ukraine

It was determined that corruption is a complex not only legal, but also social phenomenon. The factors of successful anti-corruption have long been known and tested by the international community. These are, first of all, openness of government,transparency and clarity of state decision-making procedures, effective mechanisms of control over the activities of state bodies by civil society, freedom of speech, freedom and independence of mass media.Under the conditions of large-scale corruption, the emphasis is on the elimination of the causes, and not on the fight against specific manifestations.Thus, for the legal systems of some developed countries, the use of the term «struggle» in the legislation is not characteristic at all - the legislators lay down in the normative legal act the principles of the prevention of offenses related to a certain sphere of activity.
 It was established that the formation of the content of the concept of undue advantage in the legislation of Ukraine is influenced by two different factors at once: 1) a broad understanding of this term in accordance with the tradition of the EU countries and 2) a narrow understanding in accordance with the tradition of the majority of CIS member states and the Istanbul Action Plan.In the author’s understanding, corruption is a socially dangerous phenomenon caused by the crisis features of the country’s social development, which is characterized by a deliberate violation of legal and ethical norms in the exercise of power by officials, on the one hand, and by interested subjects, on the other, which leads to negative consequences in all spheres of social life. This term is broader than the interpretation of the concept of corruption in the current legislation and in the concepts of many scientists, but it covers the main approaches to understanding the concept of corruption as a phenomenon. At the same time, it is possible to formulate the basis of the characteristics of the concept of corruption - the violation of social norms in the process of exercising power.At the same time, the concept of corruption without the element of exercise of power cannot be applied, since the process of exercise of power is the main categorical element of the concept of corruption. In normative acts, it is necessary to generalize the conceptual structure of corruption not as a crime, but as a phenomenon, because the processes that objectively exist in society, caused by the abuse of the official position of civil servants, need to be covered by this concept of various spheres of society’s life, in particular, political, socioeconomic and cultural and humanitarian. Such a state of affairs arises when, as a result of improper prevention and fight against the phenomenon of corruption, a subculture is formed among civil servants who equate civil service with the possibility of systematically using the official position for personal gain.In the future, the concept of the phenomenon of corruption must continue to be studied at the interdisciplinary level, when the methodological apparatus of political, economic and complex humanities will make it possible to categorically enrich legal science in the process of effective comprehensive interpretation of the concept of «corruption».

How Partisanship Matters: A Panel Study on the Democratic Outcomes of Perceived Dirty Campaigning

Uncivil campaigning and deceitful campaign techniques are increasingly relevant phenomena in politics. However, it remains unclear how they share an underlying component and how partisanship can influence their associations with democratic outcomes. We introduce the concept of dirty campaigning, which is situated at the intersection of research on negative campaigning and political scandals. Dirty campaigning involves violations of social norms and liberal-democratic values between elite political actors in terms of style and practices, such as uncivil campaigning and deceitful campaign techniques. In a two-wave panel study (<em>N</em> = 634) during the 2021 German federal election campaign, we investigate the associations of perceived dirty campaigning by the least and most favorite party with distrust in politicians, trust in democracy, attitudes toward dirty campaigning regulation, as well as perceived harmful consequences of dirty campaigning for democracy. We find that perceived dirty campaigning by the least favorite party increases perceptions of harmful consequences of dirty campaigning for democracy over time. In contrast, perceived dirty campaigning by the most favorite party decreases perceptions of harmful consequences of dirty campaigning for democracy as well as attitudes toward dirty campaigning regulation over time. Perceptions of harmful consequences of dirty campaigning for democracy increase distrust in politicians over time and vice versa. Our findings suggest that the outcomes of dirty campaigning can depend on partisanship and can have important implications for the quality of democracy.