Even Bad Social Norms Promote Positive Interactions

Area of Science:

• Behavioral Economics
• Social Psychology
• Experimental Economics

Background:

• Social norms, crucial for cooperation, are influenced by sanctions.
• Positive social behavior is often encouraged through positive interactions and sanctions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the interplay between social behavior and sanctions.
• To examine how different sanctioning mechanisms (punishment, reward) affect cooperation in public goods games.

Main Methods:

• Economic laboratory experiments were conducted using a public goods game.
• Participants made contribution decisions and subsequently chose sanctioning strategies (no sanction, punishment, reward, or both).
• A follow-up experiment clarified the concept of societal inefficiency.

Main Results:

• Rewarding participants led to an increase in inefficient social behavior.
• Higher levels of social activity and rewards were positively correlated.
• Even when inefficiency was clearly defined, high contributions persisted with available sanctions.
• Groups maintaining detrimental norms utilized reward options more frequently.

Conclusions:

• The findings suggest that individuals may sustain negative social norms in anticipation of positive social interactions via rewards.
• The study highlights the complex and sometimes counterintuitive effects of reward mechanisms on social behavior and norm maintenance.