tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/social-norms-4849/articlesSocial norms – La Conversation2024-02-26T13:09:06Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2233992024-02-26T13:09:06Z2024-02-26T13:09:06ZRelationship anarchy is about creating bonds that suit people, not social conventions<p>By its very nature, friendship is <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/anarchy">anarchic</a>: it has few rules and is not regulated by the government. Our friendships are usually egalitarian, flexible and non-exclusive. We treat our friends as individuals and care about their interests. We support them and don’t tell them what to do; our friendships fit around, rather than govern, our lives. </p>
<p>But interestingly, friendship is the exception when it comes to <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2020/10/people-who-prioritize-friendship-over-romance/616779/">intimacy</a>. Few of us want anarchic love lives, or to treat our children as equals. We gravitate instead towards more rigid, hierarchical, structured forms of intimacy in these relationships. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/i-have-4-partners-and-several-comet-romances-this-is-what-its-like-to-be-a-relationship-anarchist_uk_64ba8dcfe4b093f07cb48251">Relationship anarchists</a> do not hold with these ideas. They argue we must try harder to relate as equals, reject hierarchy between relationships and accept that intimate life can take many forms. </p>
<p>Critics would suggest relationship anarchy is just a lifestyle – an attempt to evade commitment. But the concept is best understood as political, and a development of the core themes of anarchist thinking. This reflects the values and practices involved, and reminds us that the flourishing of intimacy might require radical change. </p>
<p>These core themes include rejecting the idea that there should be one dominant form of authority – like a president, boss or patriarch; wariness of social class or status which arbitrarily privileges some people other others; and a deep respect for the idea that individuals should be able to govern their own lives and support each other. Applied to intimate relationships, these themes define relationship anarchy. </p>
<p>But political anarchism is not above violence and disorder. As someone whose work explores the philosophy of love, sex and relationships – and different approaches to intimacy – I view it as an attitude towards our social predicament where people try to relate as equals and reject unnecessary constraints. </p>
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<h2>Equals without constraints</h2>
<p>Relationship anarchists critique society and imagine alternatives. Their main target is the idea that there are different kinds of relationships and some are more important than others.</p>
<p>They reject how relationships appear in the media; good relationships needn’t last forever, be exclusive, between two people, domestic, involve romantic love or practical entanglement. This critical eye also extends to our attitudes towards children, animals and the environment. </p>
<p>Relationship anarchy’s aversion to hierarchy separates it from <a href="https://www.womenshealthmag.com/relationships/a46109633/what-is-a-swinger/">swinging</a> or forms of <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/japp.12240">polyamory</a> which distinguish between sex and romance, <a href="https://www.morethantwo.com/polyconfigurations.html">“primary” and “secondary” partners</a>, or which think the government should privilege some relationships through marriage law. </p>
<p>The practical heart of relationship anarchy is the idea that we design relationships to suit us, not mirror social expectations. Do we want to share a home? Is sexual intimacy important? If so, what kind exactly? This process also involves creating a framework to guide our broader intimate life. How will we choose together? How and when can we revise our framework? What about disagreements?</p>
<p>Relationship anarchists will disagree about the content of these frameworks. Can two relationship anarchists agree to be romantically exclusive, for example, set rules for each other, or decide to never revise their framework? Should they retain, repurpose or reject common labels such as “partner”?</p>
<p>My own view is that agreements are acceptable if they support our <a href="https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=romantic-agency-loving-well-in-modern-life--9781509551521">ability to be intimate</a>, but we should embrace “minimal non-monogamy” and remain open to the possibility our desires will change. </p>
<h2>Community and self-development</h2>
<p>Community is central to relationship anarchy. From queer feminist Andie Nordgren’s “<a href="https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/andie-nordgren-the-short-instructional-manifesto-for-relationship-anarchy">short instructional manifesto</a>” – which jumpstarted relationship anarchy – to <a href="https://ia803109.us.archive.org/14/items/rad2019zine/RAD%202019%20Zine%20for%20online%20reading.pdf">zines</a> like Communities Not Couples, the <a href="https://violetbeau00.medium.com/relationship-anarchy-smorgasbord-practical-applications-78ad8d911b0b">relationship “smorgasbord”</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/decolonizing.love/?hl=en">social media influencers</a>, relationship anarchists educate each other and share resources. </p>
<p>They also embrace <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/2722-mutual-aid">supporting each other</a> when social institutions are inadequate. This might involve providing money, establishing accessible community spaces, sourcing contraception and caregiving.</p>
<p>Relationship anarchy requires self-development. Since we are shaped by our social context, we often lack the skills needed to overhaul our relationships, whether that’s communicating effectively or managing emotions such as jealousy and insecurity.</p>
<p>Relationship anarchists embrace the idea that we cannot behave now in ways that would be <a href="https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/Prefigurative+Politics:+Building+Tomorrow+Today-p-9781509535910">unacceptable in our ideal society</a>. We cannot be callous or dishonest in trying to bring about open and equal relationships. Instead, trying to embody our desired changes in our actions helps us develop the skills needed to ensure these changes are sustainable. </p>
<p>Talk of relationship anarchy often prompts objections. Liberals think government involvement in private life prevents harm, and that common social norms and ideals of relationships prevent anxiety. A relationship anarchist would ask us to consider the real source of these worries. </p>
<p>We are well able to harm each other within existing government frameworks: police, immigration, social and health services often harm people in unconventional relationships through policies that <a href="https://amp.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/21/orphaned-by-decree-italy-same-sex-parents-react-losing-rights">do not recognise the family life of non-heterosexual people</a>. Or which make it hard for immigrant families to be together, or deny visitation rights to unmarried people, for example.</p>
<p>Community networks of care are active in resisting and repairing these harms, and their efforts are evidence that we can successfully oversee our own needs when it comes to intimacy. </p>
<p>Similarly, a more active approach to our relationships, where we reflect on our needs and desires, set boundaries and communicate, <a href="https://scribepublications.co.uk/books-authors/books/polysecure-9781914484957">builds confidence and decreases anxiety</a>. A realistic and flexible attitude towards intimacy makes it harder to trip on the <a href="https://blog.oup.com/2019/09/why-love-ends/">gap between ideals and reality</a>.</p>
<p>Realism, not revolution, is at the heart of relationship anarchy. Social criticism can be radical – ranging from love and domesticity to childcare, companionship and co-operation – but efforts to remould our relationships should be done with care. We can both expose social contradictions and oppressive laws and accept common ground with other views and initiatives.</p>
<p>Most of all, we should be wary of attempts to cast relationship anarchy as a fad or lifestyle. It is political – a commitment to nurture agency when it comes to intimacy. Like conversation, relationship anarchy is a process; it can be messy, loud, and unpredictable, but it can change us entirely.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223399/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luke Brunning does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Relationship anarchists argue that we should relate to one another as equals and accept that intimacy can take many forms.Luke Brunning, Lecturer in Applied Ethics, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2210622024-01-23T17:16:11Z2024-01-23T17:16:11ZVeganuary’s impact has been huge – here are the stats to prove it<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/570658/original/file-20240122-27-aqeohr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Is the Veganuary campaign really driving changes in British eating habits?</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Since launching in 2014, Veganuary has <a href="https://veganuary.com/en-us/record-number-of-people-worldwide-participate-in-veganuary-2023/">boasted increasing sign-ups</a> year on year. But what’s the evidence that the campaign that encourages people to adopt a vegan diet during January is really taking a bite out of the meat market?</p>
<p>More than 700,000 people signed up in 2023, and it’s likely that these figures – which only account for people who officially signed up on the Veganuary website – represent just a fraction of all those who took part without signing up.</p>
<p>Veganuary is a campaign which encourages people to try veganism in January. The Veganuary charity, a UK-based non-profit behind the campaign, counts Deborah Meaden, Joaquin Phoenix and Chris Packham among its ambassadors. </p>
<p>In a paper we <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950329323000484">published last year</a>, we highlighted Veganuary as the most well-known and participated-in meat-free challenge. More than three quarters of British people have heard of Veganuary. </p>
<p>One in ten have considered taking part, and 6% claim to have taken part. That equates to around four million people – significantly more than the official participation numbers.</p>
<p>So why has Veganuary succeeded where so many other efforts to curb our problematic meat consumption have failed? There are two reasons, as outlined in our <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195666321007194">recent study</a>. </p>
<p>First, Veganuary invites people to try a vegan diet at a time of year when people are often open to trying healthy new habits. Capitalising on an annual time of change can help to overcome any inertia that normally prevents people trying vegan diets.</p>
<p>Second, Veganuary is a social experience. People can connect with others attempting the same challenge. The sense of camaraderie and community is something that Veganuary participants frequently comment on having enjoyed.</p>
<p>Encouragingly, Veganuary’s survey of participants indicates that 98% would recommend the experience to a friend. Moreover, 78% of participants intended to cut their previous animal product consumption at least in half beyond the end of January, and 25% said they intend to stay vegan.</p>
<p>So, Veganuary makes sense in terms of social psychology. Lots of people have taken part, and plenty say they’ll cut down on meat in the longer term. But what evidence is there that Veganuary has made a real impact on dietary habits?</p>
<p>Veganuary’s rapid rise has been concurrent with a broader trend towards veganism and meat reduction in the UK. Total per capita meat consumption <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanplh/article/PIIS2542-5196(21)00228-X/fulltext">fell 17% from 2008 to 2019</a>, at the same time as <a href="https://bryantresearch.co.uk/insight-items/uk-protein-transition/">sales of vegetarian food increased significantly</a>. </p>
<p>The recent increase in the number of people embracing meat-free diets in the UK is shown in the graph below – in particular, the number of vegans has <a href="https://www.finder.com/uk/uk-diet-trends">increased 370%</a> in the past five years.</p>
<p>So Veganuary came to exist and grew rapidly during a time of increasing UK interest in veganism. Could that have been a simple coincidence?</p>
<p>Researchers at the London School of Economics looked at <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/3626EAA8987FBD49CB1841ECE4C74B5C/S2398063X23000271a.pdf/effects_of_veganuary_on_meal_choices_in_workplace_cafeterias_an_interrupted_time_series_analysis.pdf">more than 2 million meals</a> sold in workplace cafeterias between 2016 and 2022. Crucially, the workplaces began their Veganuary campaigns halfway through this period, in 2019. The researchers estimated that Veganuary increased sales of vegan products by 86–113% in the the 2019-2022 campaigns, and had a lasting impact on sales of vegan products</p>
<p>Sales data from <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2504-3900/91/1/76">200 UK supermarkets</a> indicate that, during Veganuary 2023, sales increased for plant-based foods which were on promotion, but not for those which were not on promotion, according to a University of Oxford study. </p>
<p>Veganuary has also increased sales of plant-based products at UK grocery stores. A team at the University of Surrey studied <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/public-health-nutrition/article/does-promoting-plantbased-products-in-veganuary-lead-to-increased-sales-and-a-reduction-in-meat-sales-a-natural-experiment-in-a-supermarket-setting/CB44968AAD1E86856D01CA47A7BC884D">sales of plant-based and animal products</a> at 154 UK grocery stores from November 2020 until March 2021 and found that Veganuary increased sales of plant-based products by a huge 57% during January. </p>
<p>Sales also remained 15% higher after Veganuary compared to before the month-long campaign. That said, there was no significant change in meat consumption observed during the same period.</p>
<p>Curious about Veganuary’s far-reaching impact, I searched Google News to estimate the number of published news stories about veganism during January compared to the rest of the year. In January, there was an average 66% increase in the number of media articles about veganism compared to other months between 2015 and 2020 – evidence that Veganuary increases public attention on veganism-related issues.</p>
<p>Next, I used Google Trends to investigate seasonal trends in the number of people actively seeking out information on veganism. The data in the graph shows some of the clearest evidence yet for the Veganuary effect, with clear spikes in search activity every January. Moreover, interest appears to begin rising right around the time that Veganuary began in 2014.</p>
<p>Finally, I tracked down the dataset from an unpublished <a href="https://plantbasednews.org/culture/engineer-predicts-uk-vegan-2030/">survey of vegans conducted in 2019</a>, because I knew it contained data on a very specific question. The survey, which the researcher kindly shared with me, asked more than 2,000 vegans when they changed their diet, to the nearest three-month period. </p>
<p>Using this data, I created this graph, which shows clear spikes, with more people turning vegan in the first quarter of the year, and an increase starting around (or slightly before) Veganuary began in 2014.</p>
<p>One piece of data stands out most of all. When Veganuary asked participants about their number one motivation for taking part, 18% said the environment, and 21% said their health – but 40% said animal welfare.</p>
<p>Indeed, the data indicates that the messages inspiring the most dietary change are not about carbon emissions, but <a href="https://www.vegansociety.com/get-involved/research/research-news/animal-cruelty-messages">about animal cruelty</a>. Almost nobody in the UK views common animal farming practices <a href="https://bryantresearch.co.uk/insight-items/acceptability-of-farming/">as acceptable</a>, yet while cow burps are within the range of acceptable dinner party conversation, knives in throats typically are not.</p>
<p>Meat consumption largely remains a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0195666321007194">social norm</a> but that may well be about to shift. The <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.aas8827">social tipping point</a> whereby enough people adopt a new norm for it to catch on is estimated to be around 25%. In the UK, the number of people consuming meat-free diets is now <a href="https://www.finder.com/uk/uk-diet-trends">up to 14%</a>. Veganuary could soon nudge us towards a vital cultural tipping point.</p>
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<img alt="Imagine weekly climate newsletter" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/434988/original/file-20211201-21-13avx6y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Bryant is the Director of Bryant Research, which works with alternative protein companies and animal protection non-profits to advance the protein transition. </span></em></p>As the plant-based campaign celebrates its tenth anniversary, researchers are analysing how Veganuary could be having a substantial impact on British diets.Chris Bryant, Honorary Research Associate, Department of Psychology, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2105262023-07-27T17:25:24Z2023-07-27T17:25:24ZTo get rid of hazing, clarify what people really think is acceptable behavior and redefine what it means to be loyal<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539622/original/file-20230726-21-ihkl30.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=222%2C90%2C4769%2C3492&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Students often have the wrong idea about what their peers think is acceptable.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/waist-up-of-six-friends-having-fun-and-drinking-royalty-free-image/1290569983?phrase=+party+red+cups&adppopup=true">Anastasiia Korotkova/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>My husband and I spent a late August day several years ago settling in our oldest child, Andrew, for the start of his first year at college. We went to Walmart to buy a mini fridge and rug. We hung posters above his bed. We attended the obligatory goodbye family lunch before heading to our car to return to a slightly quieter house.</p>
<p>Two weeks later, Andrew called me, his voice breaking. A student in his dorm had just died as a result of head trauma after a fall the young man took while extremely drunk. Media coverage in the months following indicated that instead of seeking help immediately after the fall, the young man’s friends waited nearly 20 hours to call 911. At that point, it was too late for potentially lifesaving medical treatment.</p>
<p>I’m a mom of three and a professor <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-dCo5lYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">who studies social norms</a> – the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619866455">unwritten rules that shape people’s behavior</a>. In my book “<a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674271111">Why We Act: Turning Bystanders into Moral Rebels</a>” I explore the factors that keep people from speaking up in the face of problematic behavior of all types.</p>
<p>I’ve thought about the story of my son’s classmate often as reports recently surfaced of the widespread hazing among players on the Northwestern University football team, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/fourth-lawsuit-northwestern-football-hazing-scandal/">four of whom are suing the institution</a>. Hazing is remarkably common; for instance, one NCAA report states <a href="https://www.ncaa.org/sports/2016/9/26/addressing-student-athlete-hazing.aspx">74% of student-athletes experience it</a>. Thankfully <a href="https://www.hanknuwer.com/hazing-destroying-young-lives/">hazing-related deaths are more rare</a>.</p>
<p>I suspect the root cause of these kinds of tragic situations on college campuses is the same: misperceiving what other students are thinking and feeling.</p>
<h2>Misperceiving that you’re the only one</h2>
<p>Problematic behavior in group settings – from students ignoring signs of a medical emergency to athletes hazing freshman recruits – often continues because people privately feel uncomfortable with what they see happening <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674271111">yet believe their peers don’t share their concerns</a>.</p>
<p>This perception, regardless of its accuracy, leads people to stay silent because they fear the consequences of speaking up: Will doing so lead to rejection from the group? The most common reason male college students give for failing to speak up in situations involving sexual misconduct is <a href="https://doi.org/10.3149/jms.1601.3">fear of being laughed at or ridiculed</a>. This fear is a normal part of human nature. But it weighs especially heavily when you’re an 18-year-old in a new environment and want desperately to fit in.</p>
<p>Psychologists call this condition <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1089268021995168">pluralistic ignorance</a>: A majority of people privately believe one thing but incorrectly assume that most others feel differently. Pluralistic ignorance explains why most college students feel there’s too much alcohol use on their campus but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.64.2.243">believe other students are perfectly comfortable</a> with the amount of drinking. It explains why most college men privately find sexually aggressive behavior offensive but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9446-y">wrongly believe that others endorse it</a>, and why many athletes may privately disagree with hazing but <a href="https://scholarship.law.marquette.edu/sportslaw/vol29/iss2/6">believe that their peers support it</a>.</p>
<p>Why do people fail to recognize that others might in fact share their own beliefs – about hazing or alcohol use or sexual misconduct? It’s because people tend to believe that the behavior of others <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674271111">reflects their true thoughts and feelings</a>. Thus, if other people aren’t speaking up to share their concerns about hazing, you might assume they must be perfectly comfortable with such behavior – even though you’re aware that your own behavior does not always match your beliefs.</p>
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<img alt="A bunch of beer bottles on the floor next to a person's arm hanging off couch." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539623/original/file-20230726-29-h2u7r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/539623/original/file-20230726-29-h2u7r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539623/original/file-20230726-29-h2u7r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539623/original/file-20230726-29-h2u7r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539623/original/file-20230726-29-h2u7r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539623/original/file-20230726-29-h2u7r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/539623/original/file-20230726-29-h2u7r6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=445&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Research finds some athletes don’t speak out against hazing out fear of being rejected by teammates.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/drunk-man-and-beer-bottles-royalty-free-image/523191212?phrase=drunk&adppopup=true">Bill Varie/The Image Bank via Getty Images</a></span>
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<h2>Shift what it means to be loyal</h2>
<p>So what can parents, coaches and college administrators do to prevent hazing?</p>
<p>Empirical evidence demonstrates that educating students about the psychological factors that lead people to <a href="https://doi.org/10.15288/jsa.2006.67.880">misperceive what others are actually thinking and feeling</a> can make a real difference.</p>
<p>My own research has shown that women have lower rates of disordered eating <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.21.5.519">if they learned as freshmen how campus social norms</a> contribute to unhealthy body image ideals. I’ve found that college students who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jasp.12489">learn that many of their peers struggle</a> with mental health challenges have a more positive view of mental health services.</p>
<p>So the first step in preventing hazing is to talk to college students about pluralistic ignorance – what it is and how it happens. Understanding the psychological processes that lead them to misperceive what those around them are actually thinking is the first step in helping students <a href="https://theconversation.com/heres-why-some-people-are-willing-to-challenge-bullying-corruption-and-bad-behavior-even-at-personal-risk-140829">speak up in the face of bad behavior</a>.</p>
<p>The next – and crucial – step is to shift norms about what group loyalty means. In tight-knit groups – such as athletic teams – people feel <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/089124389003004004">considerable pressure to show loyalty</a> to other group members. This sometimes translates into staying silent in the face of bad behavior by their peers — sticking together, regardless of right or wrong.</p>
<p>But the same underlying dynamics of peer influence and group cohesion can help create more positive beliefs and behavior. How? By shifting norms about what it means to protect group members.</p>
<p>Instead of staying silent about bad behavior, the expectation becomes stepping in to keep them safe.</p>
<p>This approach to changing their behavior teaches students that a single bad act hurts the reputation of the entire group, that all members of the group have a responsibility to protect their friends. Being a good friend, fraternity brother, or teammate means speaking up, not staying silent.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/210526/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine A. Sanderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>People often privately feel uncomfortable about bad behavior they see around them but mistakenly believe their peers don’t share their concerns.Catherine A. Sanderson, Poler Family Professor and Chair of Psychology, Amherst CollegeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2005032023-04-03T12:27:14Z2023-04-03T12:27:14ZHeteronormativity in health care is harmful for LGBTQ+ patients – and a source of tension for queer and trans doctors<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518273/original/file-20230329-20-mai8fc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C2000%2C1500&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Expectations of prejudice and discrimination can lead LGBTQ+ patients to avoid seeking health care.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/silhouette-of-doctor-in-white-coat-with-stethoscope-royalty-free-image/1471006528">Nadzeya Haroshka/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community have <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/discrimination-prevents-lgbtq-people-accessing-health-care/">long experienced prejudice in medical settings</a>. This can range from <a href="https://doi.org/10.1215/23289252-2399812">microaggressions</a>, such as comments that a patient doesn’t “look” queer or trans, to outright discrimination like <a href="https://legacy.lambdalegal.org/publications/when-health-care-isnt-caring">denial of care</a>. Combined with living in a society where LGBTQ+ people are routinely subjected to <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/article/discrimination-experiences-among-lgbtq-people-us-2020-survey-results/">discrimination and bigotry</a>, many patients <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1014257910462">choose not to disclose</a> their sexual or gender identities to medical providers or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6773.13229">not to seek care at all</a>.</p>
<p>Even among medical providers who practice some form of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMp058066">cultural competency</a> – an awareness of and respect for differences across cultures – and are accepting of LGBTQ+ patients, unconscious biases can shape how they <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12129">understand and talk to and about LGBTQ+ patients and issues</a>. No one leaves their cultural baggage at the clinic door.</p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sjr9eSIAAAAJ&hl=en">medical anthropologist</a> who researches LGBTQ+ health and health disparities. I have paid special attention over the past decade to how a particular kind of bias called <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/heteronormativity">heteronormativity</a> shapes how health care providers deliver care and practice medicine.</p>
<h2>What is heteronormativity?</h2>
<p>Heteronormativity refers to a cultural bias that presumes heterosexuality is the natural and normal default state of all people. Under this worldview, <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-does-it-mean-to-be-cisgender-103159">cisgender male and female</a> bodies are treated as complementary opposites that are “meant” to fit together. Heteronormativity is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2020.03.001">pervasive in contemporary societies</a> and is easily visible in social norms about gender relations, gender roles, sexual attraction and kinship and family.</p>
<p>An example of heteronormativity I have personally experienced in multiple settings is being asked if I have a wife. That question is heteronormative because it presumes the person is heterosexual and requires them to “come out” as not being straight to correct the bias.</p>
<p>Deviations from heterosexuality have historically been considered pathological. Homosexuality was <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/how-lgbtq-activists-got-homosexuality-out-of-the-dsm/">removed from the list</a> of diagnostic mental illness categories only in the 1970s. Despite that change, some contemporary conservative discourses continue to pathologize LGBTQ+ people as <a href="https://www.npr.org/2022/05/11/1096623939/accusations-grooming-political-attack-homophobic-origins">dangerous</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/nbc-out/out-politics-and-policy/texas-gops-new-platform-calls-gay-people-abnormal-rejects-trans-identi-rcna34530">abnormal</a> and consider the heterosexual nuclear family as the <a href="https://theconversation.com/fear-of-a-non-nuclear-family-102245">ideal social arrangement</a>. This perspective is known as <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/heterosexism">heterosexism</a>.</p>
<p>While heteronormativity is largely implicit and unconscious, heterosexism is explicit and considers heterosexuality to be morally superior. Heteronormativity might involve asking questions that assume a patient is heterosexual, but heterosexism would deny patients care altogether.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518279/original/file-20230329-22-jsvodp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Close-up of hands of patient using laptop, wearing rainbow band." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518279/original/file-20230329-22-jsvodp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518279/original/file-20230329-22-jsvodp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518279/original/file-20230329-22-jsvodp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518279/original/file-20230329-22-jsvodp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518279/original/file-20230329-22-jsvodp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518279/original/file-20230329-22-jsvodp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518279/original/file-20230329-22-jsvodp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Heteronormative biases can sometimes force LGBTQ+ patients to come out during medical encounters.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/close-up-of-the-hands-of-a-patient-in-the-hospital-royalty-free-image/1349347997">Manuel Arias Duran/Moment via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/homophobia">Homophobia</a> – a disgust, hatred or prejudice toward queer people – often stems from heteronormativity or heterosexism. Sometimes homophobia is unintentional, and people don’t immediately recognize that something they said or did is homophobic. Other times, people deliberately intend to express bigotry.</p>
<p>Like other forms of prejudice such as racism and <a href="https://dictionary.apa.org/ableism">ableism</a>, people are socialized into homophobia, heteronormativity and heterosexism. Even members of the groups that are being targeted and marginalized with these forms of prejudice <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000007309488">can internalize them</a>. When these cultural norms and values are internalized, they become biases like heteronormativity.</p>
<h2>Heteronormativity in health care</h2>
<p>Cultural norms and values, of which heteronormativity is one, are deeply ingrained and form personal and societal worldviews. These attitudes shape individuals’ thought and behavior and <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-institutions/">social institutions</a> such as health care. So it is unsurprising that heteronormative biases are just as pervasive in medical settings as they are in other areas of society.</p>
<p>Since at least the late 1990s, movements have sought to encourage medical practitioners to be more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839919884912">attentive to the diversity of their patient populations</a>, including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/10538720.2022.2042452">LGBTQ+ people</a>. People identifying as members of the LGBTQ+ community are increasingly coming out in medical education settings, though they often continue to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/tct.13078">experience heterosexism, homophobia and transphobia</a>. Nonetheless, LGBTQ+ medical students and practitioners are often at the forefront of <a href="https://www.glma.org/">working for positive changes</a> in order to improve health care for LGBTQ+ people.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518291/original/file-20230329-26-o20ko3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Medical student wearing rainbow lanyard in front of Harvard Medical School building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518291/original/file-20230329-26-o20ko3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/518291/original/file-20230329-26-o20ko3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518291/original/file-20230329-26-o20ko3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518291/original/file-20230329-26-o20ko3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518291/original/file-20230329-26-o20ko3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518291/original/file-20230329-26-o20ko3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/518291/original/file-20230329-26-o20ko3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harvard Medical School student Aliya Feroe recalled an experience she had with an OB-GYN who referred her to another physician after learning she identified as queer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/LGBTQMedicine/40cadc8ae6414f8cbbc0f385a25f040c">AP Photo/Steven Senne</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, integrating their personal and professional identities can be challenging. Medical students <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0b013e3182604968">develop identities</a> as physicians with clear <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-56861-0_17">moral boundaries</a> separating them from patients through a process called professionalization. My work with LGBTQ+ medical students has found that their experiences of heteronormativity and heterosexism <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12289">did not seem to overcome</a> the professionalization they underwent in medical school. Instead, they experienced a friction between their LGBTQ+ experiences and their budding identities as “neutral” and “objective” clinicians. In other words, medical education isolated their sense of who they are as doctors from their sense of who they are as queer and/or trans.</p>
<p>I refer to the ways medical students talked about this tension as an “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/maq.12289">irrelevance narrative</a>.” They would explain how their queer identities were central to their lived experiences and interactions with people except when it came to delivering care to patients, in which case their queerness was deemed “irrelevant.” This was despite the fact that they had all experienced heteronormativity and heterosexism both in and out of medical settings, which clearly indicates that their queerness is very much a part of their professional environment.</p>
<p>I saw the irrelevance narrative as a fascinating example of how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000001190">medical professionalization</a> can force a disconnect between <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssmqr.2021.100017">personal identity and professional identity</a> for people in marginalized communities. Paradoxically, this separation works to uphold heteronormativity in medical environments. In a field that treats cisgender heterosexuality as a neutral default, students come to see their own queerness as a nonneutral factor that needs to be ignored in order to be professional, leaving those heteronormative biases unchallenged.</p>
<h2>Holistic health care for all</h2>
<p>Professionalism that sets a boundary between the personal and professional is vitally important for clinical work because it enables treatment and safety standards that can <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2386327/">improve health outcomes</a>. But medicine is more than just diagnosing and treating disease. It is as much a social and cultural science as it is a biological one.</p>
<p>Training medical providers to engage in what anthropologists call a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.an.38.091009.100001">holistic approach</a>, which considers each patient as a person with life contexts that play an important role in care, could help providers better understand their patients’ needs. Taking social and cultural factors into account can lead to better and more effective treatment plans. </p>
<p>This kind of educational reform is <a href="https://www.ama-assn.org/education/accelerating-change-medical-education/members-accelerating-change-medical-education">already underway</a>. For example, the Medical College Admission Test was updated in 2015 to incorporate a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0b013e31828c4ae0">major section on social science</a>. Still, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/medical-education-needs-rethinking/">much work remains</a> to be done. </p>
<p>Medical providers must also <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781351241779-9/challenging-heteronormativity-medicine-william-robertson">do the hard work</a> of recognizing how their own cultural baggage, social norms and biases profoundly shape their ability to care for patients. This is especially true when treating patients from populations that have historically been mistreated and ignored both in medicine and broader society. Making assumptions about who patients are or what they need, regardless of intention, can make medical settings uncomfortable or even hostile.</p>
<p>To achieve a happier, healthier society, everyone must feel comfortable seeking care when they need it. This requires medical environments to become <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59304-7">actively affirming spaces</a> where LGBTQ+ people can feel comfortable being open about who they are and raise health concerns without fear of judgment, ridicule or bigotry. Merely avoiding being openly prejudiced isn’t enough.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200503/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>William Robertson receives funding from The Wenner-Gren Foundation. </span></em></p>Though some LGBTQ+ health care providers may try to separate their personal and professional identities, the prejudice they experience highlights their queerness in the clinic.William Robertson, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of MemphisLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1892892023-01-09T20:49:48Z2023-01-09T20:49:48ZA tip too far? Why tip fatigue may be setting in for North Americans<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503140/original/file-20230104-3468-csspoj.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C251%2C5730%2C3862&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A server brings food to a table as people dine at a restaurant in Vancouver in September 2021. For many people, deciding exactly how much to tip in a given situation can be uncomfortable.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/a-tip-too-far-why-tip-fatigue-may-be-setting-in-for-north-americans" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Tipping has <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joep.2014.12.002">long been an established and widely accepted</a> <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-norms/">social norm</a> in North America. Although it is not required, many Canadians feel pressured to tip — <a href="https://www.cp24.com/lifestyle/now-15-per-cent-is-rude-tipping-fatigue-hits-customers-as-requests-rise-1.6070417">even in situations when we are dissatisfied</a> with food or service quality.</p>
<p>For many, deciding exactly how much to tip in a given situation can be uncomfortable. Two recent phenomena are exacerbating this and increasing tensions around the practice of tipping.</p>
<p>The first is an increase in tipping percentage, known as <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/lifestyle/tip-flation-what-s-behind-rising-tip-percentages-at-restaurants-1.6044152">tip inflation or “tipflation.”</a> The second is <a href="https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/columnists/josh-freed-weve-reached-a-tipping-point-with-tip-creep">tip creeping</a>, which refers to the increase in services that now expect a tip from customers. Both tipflation and tip creep are reigniting the conversation about tipping in Canada and drawing attention to how entrenched tipping is in North American culture.</p>
<h2>Tip inflation</h2>
<p>Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the standard tip percentage in Canada was <a href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/tipping-in-canada/index.html">between 15 and 18 per cent</a>. Now, we are seeing tip prompts <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/costofliving/tipflation-gratuities-1.6555135">of 30 per cent and higher</a>. </p>
<p>There is evidence that Canadians have started <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/covid-19-increased-tipping-generosity-of-canadians-data-finds-1.5863487">tipping more</a> since the pandemic, as well. What is less clear is whether consumers are being pushed to tip more, or whether they are choosing to do so on their own.</p>
<p>Given the size of most restaurant transactions, the majority of them occur using a debit or credit card. The concern over the transmission of COVID-19 or other infections has increased the <a href="https://www.tastingtable.com/782895/how-covid-changed-the-way-we-pay-for-dinner/">appeal of contactless</a> or minimum contact payment. This provides businesses with an opportunity to prompt customers with an “acceptable” tipping amount through payment terminals. </p>
<p>These <a href="https://www.imperial.ac.uk/nudgeomics/about/what-is-nudge-theory/">nudges</a> are a way for businesses to frame choices to get a desired outcome. The payment terminals provide suggestions as to the amount to tip and make it easy to choose that amount. Choosing a different amount requires more effort and is, therefore, less likely to happen. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A waiter processes a dinner tab with a credit card processing device" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503141/original/file-20230104-129938-88bdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503141/original/file-20230104-129938-88bdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503141/original/file-20230104-129938-88bdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503141/original/file-20230104-129938-88bdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=433&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503141/original/file-20230104-129938-88bdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503141/original/file-20230104-129938-88bdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503141/original/file-20230104-129938-88bdxw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=544&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Card payments provide businesses with chances to prompt customers with pre-set tipping amounts through payment terminals and credit card readers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Nudging works, but it can backfire. A <a href="https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/37364598">Harvard study found that</a> higher default options led to higher average tips, but when the defaults were too high, a whiplash effect led to lower tips and negative feelings about the restaurant. Businesses need to be careful not to alienate their customers when doing this.</p>
<p>Nudges make tipping requests explicit, meaning customers are pressured into tipping, suggesting an expectation to tip, rather than a choice. This has the potential to induce feelings of guilt in customers.</p>
<p>Tipflation is also compounded by regular inflation. Restaurant prices <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=1810000403">increased by 7.7 per cent in Canada</a> in 2022, meaning tips in the food industry are increasing substantially.</p>
<p>In the past, tipping percentages have been applied to the pre-tax amount. When you calculate a percentage yourself, you calculate the tip based on the pre-tax amount, but when using terminals, tips are calculated <em>after</em> tax. All of these factors are contributing to tip inflation.</p>
<h2>Tip creep</h2>
<p>At the same time as tip percentages are increasing, the types of businesses explicitly suggesting tips are expanding. Historically, <a href="https://arrivein.com/daily-life-in-canada/tipping-in-canada-things-to-know-as-a-newcomer/">tipping in North America</a> has been reserved for restaurant serving staff, taxi drivers and hairstylists. Before point of sale terminals, you would occasionally see a tip jar on the counter at coffee shops, as well. </p>
<p>But now, other industries like <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tip-fast-food-liquor-mechanic-1.6546504">fast food, retail outlets and even mechanics</a> are offering tipping options on sales terminals to encourage — or pressure — customers into tipping. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A fast food worker at a drive through window handing a bag of food and a drink to a customer" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503151/original/file-20230104-12-d1kgtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/503151/original/file-20230104-12-d1kgtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503151/original/file-20230104-12-d1kgtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503151/original/file-20230104-12-d1kgtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503151/original/file-20230104-12-d1kgtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503151/original/file-20230104-12-d1kgtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/503151/original/file-20230104-12-d1kgtj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Should you tip fast food workers? Some fast food restaurants, like Subway and Domino’s, now have tipping options for customers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many <a href="https://www.repairsmith.com/blog/how-much-to-tip-mechanic/">auto industry insider blogs</a> are also promoting tipping in an effort to normalize the practice in industries that have not historically been part of the tipping norm. Tip creeping can create both confusion and resentment in consumers.</p>
<p>The nudge towards tipping is not just happening on payment terminals, either. The freelance service platform Fiverr suggests a tip after delivery — work is paid for when it is requested. This <a href="https://www.fiverr.com/?gclid=CjwKCAiAnZCdBhBmEiwA8nDQxY3XlyST1uktfIYYhoXBlvJ8wvh_W1uYAGG-lMQjrvDx-ZXUX89ccBoCYfEQAvD_BwE">creates uncertainty for customers</a>.</p>
<h2>Tip fatigue</h2>
<p>Many Canadians are feeling <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/now-15-per-cent-is-rude-tipping-fatigue-hits-customers-as-requests-rise-1.6071227">tip fatigue</a> from being bombarded with tipping requests more frequently. At the very least, tip fatigue means customers are leaving interactions that involve tipping with negative feelings. But at the worst, tip fatigue could cause customers to tip less or stop altogether. Those pushing to increase tipping risk alienating consumers who find the amounts and the range of services expecting tips too much.</p>
<p>As consumers, we should remember that we are in control. We choose when, where and how much to tip. While tipping is a social norm, no one should feel pressured to tip more than the standard percentage, if at all. If a business is prompting you with a tip percentage higher than you are comfortable with, you can always enter a custom amount that you feel is appropriate instead.</p>
<p>We can send a message that we won’t be pushed or guilted into tipping. We could even push for a model where customers only pay what the service is worth and businesses are required to pay their workers a reasonable wage, rather than <a href="https://www.restaurantscanada.org/industry-news/minimum-wage-by-province/">forcing them to rely on tips to make a decent living</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/189289/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael von Massow receives funding from a variety of organizations including the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Genome Canada, and Protein Industries Canada.</span></em></p>As the cost of living continues to rise, the amount Canadians are being asked to tip is also increasing due to a phenomenon known as tip inflation.Michael von Massow, Associate Professor, Food Economics, University of GuelphLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1839842022-06-20T14:28:23Z2022-06-20T14:28:23ZSex workers in Nigeria deserve fair treatment from the media<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/468191/original/file-20220610-17-xhpq8r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A Nigerian women's group demands sex workers' rights at a protest.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Adekunle Ajayi/NurPhoto via Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In most African societies today, social, cultural, economic and political forces continually place women in the back seat. While there is much focus on the physical abuse of women, there are other ways through which abuses are sustained. One is how the media represent the realities of sex work and sex workers.</p>
<p>The term ‘sex work’ (derogatorily known as prostitution) was <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/mono/10.4324/9780203700655-37/inventing-sex-work-jill-nagle">coined</a> by Carol Leigh as a means of creating “an atmosphere of tolerance within and outside the women’s movement for women working in the sex industry”. The growing popularity of the term is a result of the rise of activism among sex workers and advocacy for their rights.</p>
<p>Sex work is abhorred in many African societies. But, “Why is it that a practice so thoroughly disapproved, so widely outlawed … can yet flourish so universally?” <a href="https://www.romolocapuano.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/davis_prostitution.pdf">asks</a> American sociologist Kingley Davis. The sex business has remained with man because it performs a role in society.</p>
<p>There are inconsistent and unreliable statistics about sex work and sex workers worldwide. But by way of comparison, in Germany it has been <a href="https://www.stearsng.com/article/commercial-sex-in-nigeria-is-regulation-an-option">reported</a> that the sex industry is worth roughly €14.5 billion, the equivalent of a third of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. However, while sex work is recognised as work in Germany, in Nigeria, the business is considered abhorrent even though it is thriving, with an estimated population of <a href="http://www.healthnews.ng/nearly-all-sex-workers-and-drug-users-in-nigeria-use-condoms/">103,506</a> sex workers in 2017. </p>
<p>It has been <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/criminology-the-core/oclc/85507836">estimated</a> that women involved in sex work are 60 to 100 times more likely to be killed than the average woman. They suffer crass human rights and sexual abuses. Like most minority groups, they suffer marginalisation and social exclusion.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.arcjournals.org/international-journal-of-media-journalism-and-mass-communications/volume-3-issue-1/3">While</a> <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/315672633_Gendered_Portrayal_of_Political_Actors_in_Nigerian_Print_Media_What_Impact_on_Women's_Political_Participation">studies</a> in Nigeria emphasise the general representation of women in a multi-cultural society, there are sparse studies that problematise and address the voice of sex workers within a media context. </p>
<p>It is in view of such gaps that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17512786.2022.2065336">our recent study</a> seeks to examine how sex work and sex workers in Nigeria are represented by the news media. </p>
<h2>The study</h2>
<p>The study sought to identify the different ways in which sex work, sex workers and their clients are constructed and represented. We further wanted to know how the news media orchestrate, coordinate and perpetuate male dominance through the portrayal of the sexuality of men and women. </p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-covid-19-restrictions-prevent-nairobis-sex-workers-from-accessing-vital-healthcare-153108">How COVID-19 restrictions prevent Nairobi's sex workers from accessing vital healthcare</a>
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<p>We sampled 30 news stories that were published between 2017 and 2020, collected from the websites of three newspapers: <a href="https://www.sunnewsonline.com">Daily Sun</a>, <a href="https://www.vanguardngr.com">Vanguard</a> and <a href="https://dailytrust.com">Daily Trust</a>. These were selected based on their market segmentation, continuous publication over time and regional pre-eminence of coverage. We also interviewed two male and two female journalists who authored some of the stories we analysed.</p>
<h2>Findings</h2>
<p>The study found that newspapers are used as channels where issues about sex workers and their lived experiences were framed and reframed, their identities negotiated and renegotiated. The Nigerian news media we studied tend to be obsessed with framing female sex workers in negative ways. They were mainly constructed as dangerous to society.</p>
<p>Even though <a href="https://mpra.ub.unimuenchen.de/88402/">studies</a> in Nigeria reveal that there are male sex workers, the news media all framed sex work as a business only of and by women. </p>
<p>The media in our study tended to be vocal about the suppliers of sex while downplaying those who patronise their services. Sex providers, for instance, were described as “women of low virtues” or “ladies of the night” who ply an “unholy trade”. Their male patrons were simply described without pejorative words; as “men”, “politicians”, “clients” and “patrons”. </p>
<p>This suggests problematic journalistic biases that entrench the culture of male-privileging. This is an ideology of double standards that make men feel morally and physically edified, while women are tarnished for violating the same social norms.</p>
<p>Many of the news stories we analysed were illustrated with cropped pictures emphasising female breasts, thighs, legs, lips and buttocks. Seven of 10 stories by Daily Sun used photos in this way to provoke reader attention and stir controversy. A <a href="https://asijiki.org.za/wp-content/uploads/Final-Journalist-Guide_15-Jan-2015.pdf">study</a> by Sonke Gender Justice in South Africa reveals that such use of images undermines “the multiplicity and complexity of sex worker lives and reinforce negative stereotypes”.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-south-africas-hiv-prevention-programmes-should-include-sex-worker-clients-157264">Why South Africa's HIV prevention programmes should include sex worker clients</a>
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<p>Sex workers face dangers that include physical attack, rape, ritual killing and murder. Their many challenges were sparingly mentioned by the news media. When they were, sex workers were still mainly cast in a poor light. Daily Trust <a href="https://dailytrust.com/abakaliki-market-where-prostitutes-outnumber-traders">reported</a> that in Ebonyi State “prostitutes” and “harlots” were threatened with eviction. The report quotes a government representative:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If we don’t (evict them), it means that the whole place … would be threatened by these hoodlums hiding behind the prostitutes in the market.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Even though the sex workers were not “hoodlums”, they were treated like they were. The content analysis determined that of the articles sampled, 73.3% were constructed as “bad” (the language used to portray and construct sex work was used in a negative, derogatory way), 23.3% were “neutral” and 3.3% “good”.</p>
<h2>Conclusion</h2>
<p>Other studies reveal that most government policies have neglected the multifarious needs of sex workers. This makes sex workers vulnerable to violence, poor health and numerous other factors, making it more challenging to move out of their circumstances. </p>
<p>This study reveals a systematic delegitimisation of sex workers through biased and negative representation by news media in Nigeria, entrenching a culture of privileging that pushes these women into deeper marginalisation.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183984/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Gever Verlumun Celestine works with University of Nigeria, Nsukka</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hashim Muhammad Suleiman and Nathan Oguche Emmanuel do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The study reveals a consistently biased and negative depiction of sex workers by news media in Nigeria.Nathan Oguche Emmanuel, Lecturer/Researcher, Department of Mass Communication,, National Open University of NigeriaGever Verlumun Celestine, Lecturer in Mass Communications, University of NigeriaHashim Muhammad Suleiman, Lecturer in Mass Communication, Ahmadu Bello UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1714622021-11-15T14:17:47Z2021-11-15T14:17:47ZSeven ways that banter can become bullying<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431683/original/file-20211112-25-spegpi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=38%2C9%2C6418%2C4627&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/depressed-outsider-student-torturing-school-bullying-606825419">Rawpixel.com / Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>We’ve probably all experienced a joke that went too far. When used appropriately, lighthearted use of humour, mocking, insults and teasing – often <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378216612000422?casa_token=z-_-XFEu6XcAAAAA:UI09RwcLVlyzo2QT7e8KdDtiesL4gGxNJ_Rxp4TSYPbsqRt7ddYhYZiXT14YgkzGHjhIgp40wpeN">referred to as banter</a> – can strengthen relationships between friends and indicate acceptance <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/HUMOR.2007.008/html">within a social group</a>. In some <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261517711002159?via%3Dihub">professional contexts</a>, it can be used to promote team cohesion and performance. But banter can easily cross the line of acceptability, turning into aggression <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17482798.2016.1233893?casa_token=YqnIe1hQHIIAAAAA%3Ayak7fCJrEn7aXlbZ51ttzdo6eNZHjKOjScMxsIWaAW4aebvAynl24mHUuvVdiyWr6Wt4KZV-n_Fttd8">and bullying</a>. </p>
<p>Research shows <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fa0038928">adolescents</a> and <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315750132-10/cross-cultural-comparisons-bullying-among-university-students-maili-p%C3%B6rh%C3%B6l%C3%A4-kristen-cvancara-esta-kaal-kaja-tampere-beatriz-torres">university students</a> are most at risk of experiencing bullying and socially aggressive behaviour. To gain a clearer perspective on these behaviours, we spoke with <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563220300522?via%3Dihub">adolescents</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s42380-020-00085-0">university students</a> about their perceptions and understanding of the distinction between banter and bullying. </p>
<p>Participants in both groups identified seven factors that influence when banter becomes bullying. </p>
<p><strong>1. Topic</strong></p>
<p>Our volunteers noted several topics that were clearly offensive and off limits when engaging in banter. These included: referring to another person’s family members, comments about appearance and self-harm, comments about someone that has died, and using offensive language that could be considered a hate crime (such as homophobic or racial slurs). </p>
<p><strong>2. Social context and relationships</strong></p>
<p>Our research shows banter and how it is interpreted may be influenced by context. Banter is more likely to be perceived positively when it happens in close knit groups or between people who share a common understanding of social and communication boundaries.</p>
<p>It is important to acknowledge that not everyone shares the same values, humour or desire to engage in banter. Even banter between friends may cross the line, particularly when the commentary is perceived as offensive. </p>
<p>Where this happens, to maintain the friendship, the target of the behaviour may downplay the significance or hide their true response. In very serious cases, this can also lead to the breakdown of friendships.</p>
<p><strong>3. Intent</strong></p>
<p>Understanding the intent of the communication is crucial in determining whether banter has crossed the line. Unless misinterpreted, banter that was not intended to cause harm or upset is unlikely to cross the line. Participants use physical and verbal cues to help judge the intent of banter. </p>
<p>In the online world, intent may be even harder to determine. The lack of social and nonverbal cues means it is sometimes difficult to convey messages. For example, without tone of voice to help show whether a comment was a joke, an ambiguous comment could be interpreted as intentionally hurtful. Therefore, online exchanges of banter are more likely to be interpreted as cyberbullying. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A young boy looks sadly at a mobile phone while two of his classmates laugh at him in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431707/original/file-20211112-17238-1ukjyyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431707/original/file-20211112-17238-1ukjyyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431707/original/file-20211112-17238-1ukjyyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431707/original/file-20211112-17238-1ukjyyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431707/original/file-20211112-17238-1ukjyyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431707/original/file-20211112-17238-1ukjyyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/431707/original/file-20211112-17238-1ukjyyh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Banter communicated online or by text can be difficult to interpret.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/junior-student-reading-offensive-post-phone-1492511198">Motortion Films / Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p><strong>4. Audience size</strong></p>
<p>The audience is also important to consider when judging whether banter has crossed the line. Sharing banter with larger audiences crosses the line of acceptability. </p>
<p>Large audiences may be <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563215300509">contextually collapsed</a>, which happens when individuals from many different social circles become part of one large group. For example, adding work colleagues, family and friends to one online social network. When this happens, the values and rules of these audience members may be very different from one another, leading to misinterpretation of banter.</p>
<p><strong>5. Public v private</strong></p>
<p>When banter extends beyond private friendship groups to public audiences, the expectation that banter occurs between friends is violated. When private online posts were shared beyond the intended audience, targets and witnesses deemed this inappropriate behaviour, particularly if third parties then became involved.</p>
<p>Behaviour which may have been understood as a joke between friends could lead to embarrassment and reputational damage when shared with a larger audience. </p>
<p><strong>6. Reactions of the target</strong></p>
<p>How the target of banter reacts can influence where the line of acceptability falls. If targets react positively, then the impact of banter is downplayed. However, if targets are upset or offended, such behaviour is more likely to have crossed the line. In this case, the expectation that banter is playful has been violated. </p>
<p><strong>7. Emoji use</strong></p>
<p>Online emojis help us <a href="https://theconversation.com/signs-of-our-times-why-emoji-can-be-even-more-powerful-than-words-50893">express ourselves and signal intent</a>. But in some cases, the meaning of emojis can be ambiguous. Emojis can also be used to mask potential cyberbullying behaviours and negatively intended behaviours. </p>
<p>By using emojis to denote humour, individuals may be trying to pass behaviour off as banter that would ordinarily be regarded as bullying. Of course, the use of emojis to denote banter depends on the audiences’ ability to interpret these cues.</p>
<p>In summary, not all banter is bad. Engaging in banter can be a socially rewarding experience, but only when everyone shares the same understanding and expectations of the interaction. The line between banter and bullying may not always be easy to determine, but the factors listed above can help identify when you might be crossing it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171462/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lucy Betts has previously received funding from the British Academy for her work on cyberbullying. She is a core member of the Anti-Bullying Alliance and a trustee for the Ben Cohen StandUp Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Loren Abell, Oonagh Steer, and Sarah Buglass do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Banter can be fun, but it can quickly cross the line.Lucy Betts, Professor of Social Developmental Psychology, Nottingham Trent UniversityLoren Abell, Senior Lecturer in Social Psychology, Nottingham Trent UniversityOonagh Steer, Psychology Lecturer, Nottingham Trent UniversitySarah Buglass, Principal Lecturer in Psychology, Nottingham Trent UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1614222021-06-21T20:12:58Z2021-06-21T20:12:58ZMedia reports about vaccine hesitancy could contribute to the problem<p>Alongside logistical and supply issues, vaccine hesitancy has been a notable hurdle in Australia’s troubled vaccine rollout.</p>
<p>The news the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) now recommends Pfizer over AstraZeneca for <a href="https://www.afr.com/politics/federal/astrazeneca-limit-to-be-raised-to-60-and-older-20210617-p581sm">everyone under 60</a>, owing to a rare blood clotting disorder, is proving <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/jun/21/australians-who-skip-second-astrazeneca-vaccine-are-almost-wasting-first-dose-ama-warns">another blow</a> to vaccine confidence.</p>
<p>With active <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/news/health-alerts/novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov-health-alert/coronavirus-covid-19-current-situation-and-case-numbers">local COVID cases</a> in Victoria and New South Wales, it’s timely to be considering all possible factors which may be contributing to vaccine hesitancy.</p>
<p>One is the media. While news reports of vaccine hesitancy may well be describing genuine community concerns, they could be inadvertently fuelling COVID vaccine fears.</p>
<h2>Why are some Australians reluctant to get a COVID vaccine?</h2>
<p>While Australians perceive their environment is safe and relatively free from COVID-19, some will remain unmotivated to have the jab. They may hesitate to be immunised as they believe the vaccine could pose a greater risk than the virus itself.</p>
<p>This is not the case. ATAGI’s <a href="https://www.health.gov.au/news/atagi-statement-on-revised-recommendations-on-the-use-of-covid-19-vaccine-astrazeneca-17-june-2021">evolving recommendations</a> ensure the benefit of getting vaccinated against COVID outweighs the risk for every age group. </p>
<p>Fear, meanwhile, is a behavioural motivator. The latest outbreak in Melbourne saw <a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/coronavirus-vaccination-victoria-delivers-spike-in-jabs-as-cluster-grows/65062e20-7ea0-4f5e-aa88-92685c5f23c5">record numbers</a> of Victorians turn up for vaccination.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-smallpox-to-polio-vaccine-rollouts-have-always-had-doubters-but-they-work-in-the-end-161803">From smallpox to polio, vaccine rollouts have always had doubters. But they work in the end</a>
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<p>A Griffith University <a href="https://www.griffith.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0022/1172065/COVID-19-behavioural-insights-study-web.pdf">survey</a> conducted in the middle of 2020 found 68% of people would take a COVID-19 vaccine if one was available. Those who said they wouldn’t had concerns regarding side effects, quality of testing, and speed of vaccine development.</p>
<p>So we can see even when community transmission in Australia was higher, and before we knew about rare adverse events like the blood clots, safety was a key concern. </p>
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<img alt="A person puts their hand up against their upper arm, so as to block an injection." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407171/original/file-20210618-24-1cy9ecs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407171/original/file-20210618-24-1cy9ecs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407171/original/file-20210618-24-1cy9ecs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407171/original/file-20210618-24-1cy9ecs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407171/original/file-20210618-24-1cy9ecs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407171/original/file-20210618-24-1cy9ecs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407171/original/file-20210618-24-1cy9ecs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Vaccine hesitancy can stem from concerns about the safety of the vaccine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/photo-non-vaccination-opening-shoulder-1935986755">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<h2>Reporting on vaccine hesitancy could worsen the problem</h2>
<p>For the past several months, it seems as though every other day there’s been a new report or survey <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/almost-one-third-of-adult-australians-say-they-re-unlikely-to-get-covid-vaccination-survey-20210518-p57szo.html">in the news</a>, revealing x proportion of people are hesitant about getting a COVID vaccine.</p>
<p>Our attitudes and behaviours are shaped by what others in society do — <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/social-roles.html">social norms</a>. A recent study found university students in the United States who perceived their peers felt COVID-19 vaccination was important <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7965606/">were more likely</a> to report they intended to get a vaccine themselves.</p>
<p>Similarly, it’s important to acknowledge there’s a <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/health-and-wellness/i-m-not-anti-vaccine-why-genevieve-is-waiting-for-pfizer-20210520-p57to6.html">real danger</a> hesitancy and delay in vaccination, when reported widely in the media, could catch on to more people. </p>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/diverse-spokespeople-and-humour-how-the-governments-next-ad-campaign-could-boost-covid-vaccine-uptake-162240">Diverse spokespeople and humour: how the government's next ad campaign could boost COVID vaccine uptake</a>
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<p>A <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1049732320933863">review</a> of 34 studies found the way parents interpreted media reports about vaccination depended on their pre-existing beliefs. For example, a report of a “rare” side effect might reassure parents who already believed vaccine benefits outweigh risks, whereas the same report could discourage parents who were already concerned about side effects.</p>
<p>Indeed, humans are prone to <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/science-choice/201504/what-is-confirmation-bias">confirmation bias</a> — paying more attention to information that fits with prior beliefs. Seeking and considering evidence which <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170131-why-wont-some-people-listen-to-reason">goes against our beliefs</a> is hard for our brains. </p>
<p>But the media can help with this in the way they frame their reports. For example, emphasising that the majority of Australians want to and intend to vaccinate is a better option than focusing on the number who don’t.</p>
<p>For people already hesitating, another report could further shift the balance away from vaccination. So reporters should think carefully about the way they present vaccine hesitancy stories (and the need to present them in the first instance). </p>
<h2>Reporting on vaccine safety also must be handled carefully</h2>
<p>In Italy, media reporting about a small number of deaths following a batch of influenza vaccines in the winter of 2014/2015 was linked to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4718357/?tool=pmcentrez&report=abstract">a 10% reduction</a> in influenza vaccination among people 65 and older compared to the previous season. </p>
<p>These deaths were quickly confirmed as <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4718357/?tool=pmcentrez&report=abstract">unrelated to vaccination</a>, but it seems the early reports had a significant effect on behaviour. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X14013073">global study</a>, three of 13 national and state level immunisation managers interviewed said “negative information conveyed in the mass media” contributed to vaccine hesitancy in their countries. </p>
<p>On the flip side, media reports about influenza and vaccination can also increase vaccination uptake. In <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264410X19313829">this study</a>, careful data analysis showed higher numbers of news reports with “influenza” or “flu” in the headline corresponded with higher flu vaccination uptake in the same year.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man on a tablet computer." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407174/original/file-20210618-28-vj5ewx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407174/original/file-20210618-28-vj5ewx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407174/original/file-20210618-28-vj5ewx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407174/original/file-20210618-28-vj5ewx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407174/original/file-20210618-28-vj5ewx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407174/original/file-20210618-28-vj5ewx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407174/original/file-20210618-28-vj5ewx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Media coverage about vaccines can both help and hinder vaccine confidence.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What should the media aim for in reporting on COVID vaccination?</h2>
<p>Any reporting on Australians’ inclination to vaccinate should reinforce what is in fact the social norm — the intention of the majority to receive a COVID vaccine.</p>
<p>Further, media reporting on COVID vaccines should be careful to contextualise the benefits alongside the risks, and regularly remind consumers of reliable sources such as federal and state health departments and ATAGI.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/alarmist-reporting-on-covid-19-will-only-heighten-peoples-anxieties-and-drive-vaccine-hesitancy-161170">Alarmist reporting on COVID-19 will only heighten people's anxieties and drive vaccine hesitancy</a>
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<p>And while the media must be cognisant of its role, the government needs to act quickly to reverse the hesitancy trend. People are looking for reasons to have the jab; they are desperate for a national roadmap out of COVID-19.</p>
<p>If Australians could see how becoming vaccinated would contribute to economic prosperity (for example, reopening <a href="https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2020/dec/the-covid-19-outbreak-and-australias-education-and-tourism-exports.html">tourism and international education</a>), and facilitate other things returning to normal, such as our ability to travel overseas, they would be motivated into action.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161422/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Our attitudes and behaviours are shaped by what others in society do. So there’s a real danger that vaccine hesitancy, when reported widely in the media, could catch on to more people.Heather Green, Senior Lecturer, School of Applied Psychology, Griffith UniversityJoan Carlini, Lecturer, Department of Marketing, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1603282021-06-16T12:36:32Z2021-06-16T12:36:32ZFaith still shapes morals and values even after people are ‘done’ with religion<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405480/original/file-20210609-14775-tfl15n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C18%2C3056%2C2031&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">For many, leaving religion does not mean leaving behind religious morals and values.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/">Jesus Gonzalez/Moment via Getty</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Religion forms a moral foundation for billions of people throughout the world. </p>
<p>In a 2019 survey, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/global/2020/07/20/the-global-god-divide/">44% of Americans</a> – along with 45% of people across 34 nations – said that belief in God is necessary “to be moral and have good values.” So what happens to a person’s morality and values when they lose faith? </p>
<p>Religion influences morals and values through multiple pathways. It shapes the way people think about and respond to the world, fosters habits such as church attendance and prayer, and provides a web of social connections. </p>
<p>As researchers who study <a href="https://fhssfaculty.byu.edu/directory/sam-hardy">the psychology</a> and <a href="https://soc.unl.edu/philip-schwadel">sociology of religion</a>, we expected that these psychological effects can linger even after observant people leave religion, a group we refer to as “religious dones.” So together with our co-authors <a href="https://hope.edu/directory/people/van-tongeren-daryl/index.html">Daryl R. Van Tongeren</a> and <a href="https://psychology.as.uky.edu/users/njdewa2">C. Nathan DeWall</a>, we sought to test this “religion residue effect” among Americans. Our research addressed the question: Do religious dones maintain some of the morals and values of religious Americans?</p>
<p>In other words, just because some people leave religion, does religion fully leave them? </p>
<h2>Measuring the religious residue effect</h2>
<p>Recent research demonstrates that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/pspp0000288">religious dones around the world</a> fall between the never religious and the currently religious in terms of thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Many maintain some of the attributes of religious people, such as volunteering and charitable giving, even after they leave regular faith practices behind. So in our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220970814">first project</a>, we examined the association between leaving religion and the five <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-407236-7.00002-4">moral foundations</a> commonly examined by psychologists: care/harm, fairness/cheating, ingroup loyalty/betrayal, authority/subversion and purity/degradation.</p>
<p>We found that religious respondents were the most likely to support each of the five moral foundations. These involve intuitive judgments focusing on feeling the pain of others, and tapping into virtues such as kindness and compassion. For instance, religious Americans are relatively likely to oppose acts they deem “disgusting,” which is a component of the purity/degradation scale. This aligns with <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868309353415">previous research on religion and moral foundations</a>.</p>
<p>Most importantly, and in line with the religion residue hypothesis, we have found what we call a “stairstep pattern” of beliefs. The consistently religious are more likely than the dones to endorse each moral foundation, and the religious dones are more likely to endorse them than the consistently nonreligious. The one exception was the moral foundation of fairness/cheating, which the dones and the consistently religious supported at similar rates.</p>
<p>Put another way, after leaving religion, religious dones maintain some emphasis on each of the five moral foundations, though less so than the consistently religious, which is why we refer to this as a stairstep pattern.</p>
<p><iframe id="P7UCF" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/P7UCF/8/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jopy.12620">second project</a> built on <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0038455">research showing that</a> religion is inextricably linked with values, particularly <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60281-6">Schwartz’s Circle of Values</a>, the predominant model of universal values used by Western psychologists. Values are the core organizing principles in people’s lives, and religion is positively associated with the values of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2003.10.005">security, conformity, tradition and benevolence</a>. These are “social focus values”: beliefs that address a generally understood need for coordinated social action. </p>
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<p>For this project, we asked a single group of study participants the same questions as they grew older over a period of 10 to 11 years. The participants were adolescents in the first wave of the survey, and in their mid-to-late 20s in the final wave.</p>
<p>Our findings revealed another stairstep pattern: The consistently religious among these young adults were significantly more likely than religious dones to support the social focus values of security, conformity and tradition; and religious dones were significantly more likely to support them than the consistently nonreligious. While a similar pattern emerged with the benevolence value, the difference between the religious dones and the consistently nonreligious was not statistically significant.</p>
<p>Together, these projects show that the religion residue effect is real. The morals and values of religious dones are more similar to those of religious Americans than they are to the morals and values of other nonreligious Americans. </p>
<p>Our follow-up analyses add some nuance to that key finding. For instance, the enduring impact of religious observance on values appears to be strongest among former evangelical Protestants. Among dones who left mainline Protestantism, Catholicism and other religious traditions, the religion residue effect is smaller and less consistent. </p>
<p>Our research also suggests that the religious residue effect can decay. The more time that passes after people leave religion, the more their morals and values come to resemble those of people who have never been religious. This is an important finding, because a large and growing number of Americans <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3088891">are leaving organized religion</a>, and there is still much to be learned about the psychological and social consequences of this decline in religion. </p>
<h2>The growing numbers of nonreligious</h2>
<p>As recently as 1990, only <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/3088891">7% of Americans reported having no religion</a>. Thirty years later, in 2020, the percentage claiming to be nonreligious had quadrupled, with <a href="https://www.pewforum.org/2021/01/14/measuring-religion-in-pew-research-centers-american-trends-panel/">almost 3 in 10 Americans having no religion</a>. There are now more nonreligious Americans than affiliates of any one single religious tradition, including the two largest: Catholicism and evangelical Protestantism. </p>
<p>This shift in religious practice may fundamentally change Americans’ perceptions of themselves, as well as their views of others. One thing that seems clear, though, is that those who leave religion are not the same as those who have never been religious. Given the rapid and continued growth in the number of nonreligious Americans, we expect that this distinction will become increasingly important to understanding the morals and values of the American people. </p>
<p>[<em>Explore the intersection of faith, politics, arts and culture.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/this-week-in-religion-76/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=religion-explore">Sign up for This Week in Religion.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/160328/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Religion affects how people regard qualities like benevolence, kindness, conformity and fairness even after they stop practicing religion.Philip Schwadel, Professor of Sociology, University of Nebraska-LincolnSam Hardy, Professor of Psychology, Brigham Young UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1623702021-06-14T11:51:21Z2021-06-14T11:51:21ZWhy COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy should fall as more people get the jab<p>Did you book your NHS COVID-19 vaccination on the phone? If you did, the first thing you heard was this automated message: “Thank you for your call. We are pleased so many people have responded to their invitations to get a COVID vaccination.”</p>
<p>Perhaps you’ve seen an NHS advertisement on Instagram or <a href="https://twitter.com/NHSuk/status/1399999312256507905?s=20">Twitter</a>. If so, chances are you saw the following invitation: “Join the millions already vaccinated.”</p>
<p>How do these statements make you feel? My guess is that, somewhere in the bundle of emotions, are the following thoughts: you’re about to do what many others have already done. You’re going to be part of something big. And you’re feeling more confident about taking this step, because you’ve got some proof that others have done what you’re about to do. It all just feels, well, normal.</p>
<p>If many feel this way, then this is a sign that taking a COVID-19 vaccine has become an accepted and expected behaviour: what’s known as a social norm. Reaching this point could be hugely beneficial as the UK’s rollout continues. If getting vaccinated becomes a social norm, it could help convince those who are hesitant to change their position. </p>
<h2>Creating a new normal</h2>
<p>Social scientists <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-norms/#EarlTheoSoci">have long been curious</a> about how new social norms emerge. A big part of what makes norms so intriguing is that they spring from our routine social interactions and behaviour, yet they also shape our routine social interactions and behaviour. We collectively create norms, but we also adapt to fit in with them. Norms enable and norms constrain. They are crucially important for understanding social change.</p>
<p>Today’s media systems are historically unique, in part because <a href="https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199759477.001.0001/acprof-9780199759477/">they offer so many opportunities</a> for people to signal social norms to others. This happens on a vast scale every day, through the countless digitally mediated interactions on social media and personal messaging apps. The signalling of social norms about COVID-19 vaccination is crucial – and likely to become even more so as we move into the next phase of the vaccine rollout. </p>
<p>Current evidence suggests that, in the UK, vaccine hesitancy may be more difficult to overcome from now on. Younger people tend, on average, to <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/topics/health/articles-reports/2021/04/28/vaccine-hesitancy-has-fallen-across-british-societ">be a bit less keen to get vaccinated</a> than middle-aged and older people. And older people who have already declined vaccination could be the most difficult to persuade.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A woman texting on her phone" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406106/original/file-20210614-118145-1bz3xm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406106/original/file-20210614-118145-1bz3xm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406106/original/file-20210614-118145-1bz3xm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406106/original/file-20210614-118145-1bz3xm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406106/original/file-20210614-118145-1bz3xm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406106/original/file-20210614-118145-1bz3xm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406106/original/file-20210614-118145-1bz3xm5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Endorsing things online is a key way of creating new social norms in today’s world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/image-side-view-beautiful-asian-woman-1911608269">Amnaj Khetsamtip/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>And yet, if we think about the success of the UK’s vaccination rollout to date – and factor in how social norms diffuse – there are now good reasons to be optimistic that <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/psychological-medicine/article/covid19-vaccine-hesitancy-in-the-uk-the-oxford-coronavirus-explanations-attitudes-and-narratives-survey-oceans-ii/C30FDB5C3D87123F28E351FDAAD5351A">vaccine hesitancy</a> will not seriously undermine the pandemic response.</p>
<p>We are more likely to adopt a course of behaviour when we can see that there’s a consensus among numerous others that it’s the best thing to do. Our thinking about how to behave is shaped, in part, by our perception that others in our social networks <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.12.3.151">think the same way</a>. This psychological effect of wanting to conform by following the consensus is known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_proof">“social proof”</a>.</p>
<p>In the absence of information that contradicts what we can readily observe, behaviour tends to <a href="https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=12209&context=journal_articles">cascade quickly across social networks</a>, as more and more people perceive that joining the emerging consensus is less effort, more <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(21)00096-7/fulltext#">personally beneficial</a>, and more likely to help them <a href="https://chicagounbound.uchicago.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=12209&context=journal_articles">fit in</a> and enhance their social status.</p>
<p>An important mechanism in generating social proof is online endorsement. Other people’s thumbs ups and thumbs downs inform our perceptions of what is desirable and acceptable. For example, when a social media user positively endorses news articles, <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10584609.2017.1316329">it influences</a> levels of attention to, and favourability towards, those articles among their followers.</p>
<p>People tend to see traces of others’ endorsements, such as online comments or lists of “most shared” news articles, as <a href="https://academic.oup.com/joc/article-abstract/51/1/52/4110134?redirectedFrom=fulltext">more authentic</a> measures of credibility and popularity than selection by a news editor.</p>
<p>This can have a direct impact on the health choices people make – including about vaccination. Before the pandemic, <a href="https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/131/5/e1397">one US study</a> found that parents who believed that other parents in their social networks were unlikely to have their children immunised against <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/child-adolescent.html">routine diseases</a> (such as measles, polio, tetanus and others) were themselves more likely to delay or skip vaccinations for their children.</p>
<p>Social proof is therefore powerful – and for the UK’s COVID-19 vaccine programme, it will be especially so. As I write this article, <a href="https://coronavirus.data.gov.uk/">41.5 million people in Britain</a> have received a first dose, 29.8 million a second. There’s a huge amount of consensus and <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051211008817">endorsement</a> with a lot of potential to influence the actions of others. </p>
<h2>An ongoing struggle</h2>
<p>Still, there are some final points worth stressing.</p>
<p>Social proof does not emerge spontaneously – it must be maintained. <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051211008817">Different types</a> of media and information sources continually expose the vaccine-positive and the vaccine-hesitant to the social signals that influence whether they will accept or avoid vaccination and whether they will encourage or discourage others from getting a jab. </p>
<p>And in the UK, those who use social media as their main source of information about COVID-19 are more likely to hold conspiracy beliefs and to go online to <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051211008817">discourage others</a> from getting vaccinated. There are forces that run counter to the influence of prevailing social norms that may even undo them.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man showing a sticker that says 'I've had my COVID vaccination'" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406108/original/file-20210614-115215-pbu2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/406108/original/file-20210614-115215-pbu2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406108/original/file-20210614-115215-pbu2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406108/original/file-20210614-115215-pbu2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406108/original/file-20210614-115215-pbu2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406108/original/file-20210614-115215-pbu2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/406108/original/file-20210614-115215-pbu2fv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People need ways to demonstrate their behaviour in order to build and maintain social norms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/cambridgeshire-united-kingdom-march-02-2021-1928412893">Elena Zajchikova/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Plus, those who are enthusiastic about vaccination still need clear information and good ways to share it with others online. Without them, the <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051211008817">vaccine-positive</a> will lack the ability to signal their enthusiasm and experiences in ways that maintain awareness of the social proof that vaccines are safe and effective. All of these points will be important to bear in mind as the vaccination programme moves forward. </p>
<p>That’s not to say that elaborate strategies and campaigns to convey normative behaviours are necessarily needed. Sometimes, signals of social proof can be simple and personal. Recall that I started this article by letting you know what you will first hear when you book your COVID-19 vaccination.</p>
<p>Do you see what I did there?</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162370/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andrew Chadwick currently receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust (RPG-2020-019) and is a member of the Oxford Coronavirus Explanations, Attitudes and Narratives (OCEANS) project, which has received funding from the University of Oxford COVID-19 Research Response Fund (0009519), the National Institute of Health Research (II-C7-0117-20001, BRC-1215-20005, and NIHR-RP-2014-05-003) and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AH/V006819/1). The University of Oxford has entered into a partnership with AstraZeneca for the development of a coronavirus vaccine. </span></em></p>If we think about the success of the UK’s vaccine rollout to date, and factor in how social norms tend to diffuse, then there’s good reason to be optimistic.Andrew Chadwick, Professor of Political Communication, Loughborough UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1505842021-04-14T12:38:36Z2021-04-14T12:38:36ZCOVID-19 public health messages have been all over the place – but researchers know how to do better<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394900/original/file-20210413-15-1nwtuq7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C64%2C4648%2C3496&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Public service announcements, news articles and social media posts are all part of the coronavirus messaging landscape.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-walk-by-a-cdc-billboard-encouraging-people-to-wear-a-news-photo/1264183293">Noam Galai via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Persuading people to get a COVID-19 vaccine remains a challenge even as <a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinations">more than a 120 million people in the U.S.</a> have received at least one dose.</p>
<p>Public health officials have struggled to find persuasive and accessible approaches throughout the pandemic, from explaining where COVID-19 originated to <a href="https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/who-comments-breed-confusion-over-asymptomatic-spread-of-covid-19-67626">how the virus spreads among individuals</a>, along with steps to prevent its transmission, its inequitable impacts on people’s lives, and now relevant risks and benefits information about vaccines.</p>
<p>COVID-19 is not just a medical issue. It is also a social justice, economic and political issue. That makes it hard to figure out how best to share information about it, especially since messages come from a range of communicators – including elected officials, journalists, scientists, physicians and community leaders – and are delivered to diverse audiences.</p>
<p>And the science itself has been uncertain and evolving. New information can change what’s known <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-science-of-this-pandemic-is-moving-at-dangerous-speeds/">almost daily</a>, making clear, accurate communication a “<a href="https://slate.com/technology/2020/04/covid19-misinformation-science-communication.html">moving target</a>.”</p>
<p>As researchers <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=r7G9f0wAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">focused on</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=NKj9jw4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">the science of</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=BSaDBDQAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">science communication</a>, we can suggest <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/527120-the-missing-link-of-bidens-covid-strategy-social-scientists">several communication strategies</a>, based on <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/25881/encouraging-adoption-of-protective-behaviors-to-mitigate-the-spread-of-covid-19">a July 2020 report</a> from the National Academies for Science, Engineering and Medicine, that encourage protective behaviors related to COVID-19.</p>
<h2>Clear and open, even about uncertainty</h2>
<p>Decades of research in risk communication show that <a href="https://www.fda.gov/media/81597/download">people’s perception of their own risk</a> is key to motivating them to take preventive measures. For that to work, public health messages must be clear, consistent and transparent. </p>
<p>One way to ensure that, especially for issues that have high uncertainty, like the pandemic, is for science and health messages to include context that connects the news to people’s concerns and prior experiences. What does risk or uncertainty about how the virus is transferred mean for the audience? How can they act on that information in their own lives? The “so what” of the message has to feel relevant. One approach, for example, is to emphasize how adoption of preventive behaviors – such as mask-wearing and hand-washing – leads to local businesses reopening and faster economic recovery. </p>
<p>Ensuring consistency in messaging, even for a rapidly changing issue, also means considering context – the bigger-picture processes shaping the issue. In other words, where do both the information and the uncertainty come from? What do scientists, policymakers and health care workers know or not know at this point? Then, most crucially, what are people doing to address that uncertainty and what can audiences still do to act in the face of it?</p>
<h2>Tap into a crowd mentality</h2>
<p>At various points during the pandemic, public health officials needed to persuade people to change aspects of their daily lives. To do this effectively, it helps to remember that people change their behavior and beliefs to better match what they perceive other people are doing – especially those they most identify with. It’s human nature to want to go along with <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/social-norms-4849">social norms</a>.</p>
<p>Health messages should avoid putting a spotlight on “bad” behaviors, since that can actually <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0899-5">exacerbate the problem</a>. Disproportionate attention paid to vaccine hesitancy or people refusing to wear masks, for example, gives the impression that these <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/27/more-americans-say-they-are-regularly-wearing-masks-in-stores-and-other-businesses/">behaviors are more common</a> than they actually are. Rather, attention to “good” behaviors, such as small business successfully implementing social distancing practices, can be more effective.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394901/original/file-20210413-21-1gybymu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="masked older man holds up his vaccination card" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394901/original/file-20210413-21-1gybymu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/394901/original/file-20210413-21-1gybymu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394901/original/file-20210413-21-1gybymu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394901/original/file-20210413-21-1gybymu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394901/original/file-20210413-21-1gybymu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394901/original/file-20210413-21-1gybymu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/394901/original/file-20210413-21-1gybymu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The now-ubiquitous post-vaccine selfie can have unintended consequences.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakCalifornia/b8ae1e0c55344cbdadab45dbfb65af8f/photo?boardId=d7f2514f50804466b15dfb81ed00d9cd&st=boards&mediaType=audio,photo,video,graphic&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=37&currentItemNo=0">AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But even well-intended efforts to promote social norms, such as vaccination selfies, may provoke <a href="https://theconversation.com/posting-covid-19-vaccine-selfies-on-social-media-can-cause-anger-frustration-153504">significant backlash</a>, including jealousy, anger and feelings of injustice.</p>
<p>One way to avoid unintended backlash is to consider, before sharing, who is likely to see this message beyond the intended audiences. Are those who might see the message able to act on this information? If people can’t sign up for their own vaccination yet, a photo of a happy newly vaccinated person may make them feel angry and trigger negative feelings about systemic unfairness and resentment toward those who do have access.</p>
<h2>Balancing the good news with the bad</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/03637759209376276">fear of a threat can motivate action</a>. But a fear-based message often leads to people feeling helpless unless it’s paired with clear actions they can take to mitigate the threat.</p>
<p>Alternatively, <a href="https://covid19vaccinescommunicationprinciples.org/the-principles/emotions/">hope is a powerful motivator</a>, much more so and more consistently than fear or anger in many cases. Fortunately, for science communication in particular, surveys find that the majority of Americans <a href="https://theconversation.com/science-elicits-hope-in-americans-its-positive-brand-doesnt-need-to-be-partisan-124980">remain hopeful about the promise of science</a> to improve people’s lives.</p>
<p>Communicating hope can happen implicitly, through <a href="https://www.solutionsjournalism.org/">highlighting what does work</a> and the benefits of actions. For example, clients following mask-wearing policies permitted many small businesses like hair salons to remain safely open.</p>
<p>What tends to be more common, especially in news coverage, is an emphasis on the negative – both in the current situation and in hypothetical futures and risks that could come if people don’t change course. You can see this focus in the coverage of gatherings that violate health regulations, like crowded beaches during spring break. </p>
<p>The weight of constant bad news reduces how equipped individuals feel to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/109019810002700506">deal with a problem or avoid a risk</a>. And this negative tendency can paint an unrealistic picture of an issue that has both wins and losses to report.</p>
<p>Without a fuller picture of the good news – what does work and what people are doing right – it becomes very difficult to envision how the world could look any different, or what anyone can do to move forward to a better place.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/science-editors-picks-71/?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/150584/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nothing to disclose.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dominique Brossard and Todd Newman do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>During the pandemic, clear and reliable health communication can literally be a life-and-death issue. Researchers who focus on the science of science communication highlight strategies that work.Todd Newman, Assistant Professor of Life Sciences Communication, University of Wisconsin-MadisonDominique Brossard, Professor and Chair of Life Sciences Communication, University of Wisconsin-MadisonEmily Howell, Postdoctoral Fellow in Life Sciences Communication, University of Wisconsin-MadisonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1443872021-01-11T13:18:43Z2021-01-11T13:18:43ZCOVID-19 response shows how an informal rule of law plays a supporting role in society<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/377411/original/file-20210106-23-1dkp32.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C3575%2C2197&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Waiting their turn, while masked and keeping a distance.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/long-line-of-shoppers-waiting-to-get-into-grocery-store-news-photo/1220163832?adppopup=true">Lindsey Nicholson/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Through much of the last year, COVID-19 has propelled many people to accept and follow new patterns of behavior. These include wearing a mask in public, attempting to socially distance and restricting groups to smaller numbers.</p>
<p>Developed in what critics say was an <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/03/11/coronavirus-local-leadersfederal-direction-1266348">absence of strong national leadership</a>, these behaviors have been policed, by and large, by people themselves – <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/09/16/covid-19-face-mask-mandates-go-unenforced-police-under-pressure/5714736002/">fines and other punishments are seldom enforced</a> <a href="https://www.nbcboston.com/investigations/few-in-mass-face-fines-for-ignoring-mask-order/2240761/">at an official level</a>. Instead, nonobservance is greeted by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-talk-to-someone-who-doesnt-wear-a-mask-and-actually-change-their-mind-143995">disapproval and occasional anger</a> of others.</p>
<p>While we wait for vaccines to provide more lasting protection, these decentralized social norms have <a href="https://doi.org/10.5588/ijtld.20.0244">helped our collective safety</a>. But an interesting question arises: How important are informal rules in keeping us safe, and why do people alter their behavior to follow norms when they don’t expect disobedience to be punished by authorities?</p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.umass.edu/jne/member/david-mednicoff">a social scientist and lawyer</a>, I believe the answer lies in an understudied aspect of law and society: the informal rule of law. By informal rule of law, I mean behavioral norms that evolve through the actions of people or institutions and don’t have legal force. Such norms may be written down, but they aren’t usually enforced by governments.</p>
<h2>Common codes</h2>
<p>As the response to the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates, most people seek to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.100.3.641">adhere to common codes of behavior</a> that they see as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200220-could-we-live-in-a-world-without-rules">fair and generally in everyone’s best interest</a>. This includes how we wait in lines or many aspects of how we speak with each other. These norms don’t generally depend on the threat of state law enforcement to be pervasive or meaningful.</p>
<p>Since the pandemic hit the U.S. last March, in my area of western Massachusetts, individuals and businesses have put into place patterns of expected social behavior markedly different from what was present earlier. </p>
<p>Because of this, most people I see wear face masks, stay at least six feet away from others and wait in orderly lines to enter and move through stores and other public places. This chimes with national surveys that show that, as 2020 passed, an <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/27/more-americans-say-they-are-regularly-wearing-masks-in-stores-and-other-businesses/">increasing number of Americans</a> adhered to patterns of behavior such as mask-wearing in stores.</p>
<p>The key is that such rules emerged somewhat organically through civil society. There has been limited action at a federal level, and while state mandates have been issued – <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/17/us/coronavirus-midwest-northern-governors/index.html">in some cases reluctantly</a> – often it was left largely to people themselves to govern their own response, especially in the early stages. An analysis by the European think tank Bruegel found that in many instances <a href="https://www.bruegel.org/2020/04/social-distancing-did-individuals-act-before-governments/">social distancing occurred before government intervention</a>. “In the absence of government action, if individuals are informed about risk, they seem to choose to engage in social distancing,” researchers concluded.</p>
<p>Granted, the informality of such rules has led to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53477121">public disagreements, even arguments</a>, and local authorities have stepped in to underscore social distancing rules. But often, this happened only after the rules themselves emerged.</p>
<p>In short, the pandemic demonstrated the evolution of an informal rule of law that initially was promulgated, contested and enforced mostly independently of American governments, courts and police. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.inet.econ.cam.ac.uk/working-paper-pdfs/wp2008.pdf">speed at which the informal rule of law</a> was accepted by many with respect to COVID-19 should remind us that human societies are capable of self-regulation to a fairly effective extent. My local area, and many others, pushed back the pandemic during the first wave mostly by the rapid spread of rules of behavior that required self-sacrifice but served the public interest. As <a href="http://www.econ.cam.ac.uk/people/faculty/fmot2">Cambridge economic epidemiologist Flavio Toxvaerd</a> recently noted in a <a href="https://www.inet.econ.cam.ac.uk/working-paper-pdfs/wp2008.pdf">study on the impact of behavior on disease</a>: “Spontaneous, uncoordinated social distancing…acts to flatten the curve of the epidemic by reducing peak prevalence.”</p>
<p>Being part of the informal rule of law can be uplifting. Indeed, the feeling of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-doing-good-can-do-you-good-59106">satisfaction that people I know have voiced in making a difference</a> in preserving lives by adhering to social distancing norms is at least a small piece of agency against the terrible traumas and death toll the pandemic has wrought.</p>
<h2>Supporting role</h2>
<p>Yet the informal rule of law has its limits. These are also clear in a wide-reaching crisis like COVID-19. First, enforcing informal rules is challenging, as many know from the discomfort we experience in trying to get others to wear masks. Important political thinkers have <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/locke-political/#LockPuni">argued for centuries</a> that one big reason that people need government is to adjudicate critical rules effectively and unbiasedly, and punish important violations. The informal rule of law during the pandemic has helped reduce the spread of cases. But research has shown that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00818">mandates could be more effective</a>. And institutions of enforcement still seem needed when people truly diverge on informal legal behavior, as we have seen in some areas with large COVID-19 outbreaks in the U.S.</p>
<p>More significantly, a major crisis like the pandemic is too widespread and complex to be regulated fully through local and consensual informal rule of law. Many aspects of fighting the pandemic far exceed what can be achieved by ordinary people or communities. It requires data on cases, research on the disease and how to combat it, the distribution of critical supplies and the accumulation of expert knowledge.</p>
<p>Because key aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic depend on such larger-scale action and expertise, the role of the informal rule of law works best alongside formal actions of leaders and institutions.</p>
<p>Nonetheless, the supporting role of the informal rule of law merits attention. With so many large challenges facing the U.S. and the world today, it is easy for people to feel powerless and passive. Yet, as a collection of small societies and often generous individuals, people in the part of Massachusetts where I live, and in many diverse places, have managed to put together new ways of interacting and behaving that may not be particularly gratifying. They have still saved countless lives.</p>
<p>[<em>Get facts about coronavirus and the latest research.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=coronavirus-facts">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter.</a>]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144387/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Mednicoff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A social scientist argues that in the absence of strong government action, people took it upon themselves to work out conduct to stem the spread of virus.David Mednicoff, Chair, Department of Judaic and Near Eastern Studies, and Associate Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Public Policy, UMass AmherstLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1493482020-12-29T14:19:35Z2020-12-29T14:19:35ZGroup exercise may be even better for you than solo workouts – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374565/original/file-20201212-22-1nagota.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=280%2C452%2C5676%2C3558&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">During the pandemic, exercise classes and groups need to take social distancing guidelines into account.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-attend-an-outdoor-soulcycle-class-at-the-hudson-news-photo/1271598743">Noam Galai/Getty Images Entertainment via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Group exercise is very popular: Nearly 40% of regular exercisers participate in group fitness classes. In advance of the coronavirus pandemic, the American College of Sports Medicine predicted that group fitness would be <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1249/FIT.0000000000000526">one of the top three fitness industry trends in 2020</a> – for good reason.</p>
<p>Exercise has clear benefits for your <a href="https://health.gov/sites/default/files/2019-09/Physical_Activity_Guidelines_2nd_edition.pdf">health and well-being</a>, and the side effects – think lowered blood pressure, improved glycemic control, better sleep – are overwhelmingly positive. And <a href="https://doi.org/10.7556/jaoa.2017.140">exercising in groups</a> may have particularly beneficial effects.</p>
<p>If you’ve been considering joining an online group class – or been encouraged to by others – here are some research-based reasons why that might be a great idea.</p>
<h2>Everyone else is doing it, why not you?</h2>
<p>Other people <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-7-86">influence your attitudes and emotional responses to exercise</a>. That is, they can affect how you feel about exercising, which is critical for determining whether you do it or not. If you get to know others who exercise regularly, you start to perceive exercise as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-7-86">more positive, common, desirable and doable</a>. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=TU08z8YAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Psychology and exercise researchers</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=75fzUgIAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">like us</a> know that people are influenced by those around them in a few different ways. Knowing other people who lift weights or take a spin class <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2019.1618726">influences your explicit and implicit attitudes</a> – your thoughts and feelings – about exercise.</p>
<p>It also molds what are called social norms: your perceptions about whether other people exercise and if you think you should.</p>
<h2>Fun with friends is motivating</h2>
<p>Even if you’ve already decided exercising is something you want to do and intend to do, there are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167217733068">different kinds of motivation</a> that can determine if you are successful at <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2007.00325.x">beginning and maintaining exercise</a>. Exercising with others can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1186/1479-5868-7-86">boost those motivations</a>. </p>
<p>The highest quality or type of motivation is called <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.1.68">intrinsic motivation</a> – you’re doing something because the behavior itself is enjoyable, satisfying or both. If you enjoy exercise and not just the positive feelings you get after you’ve worked out, you are more likely to stick with it. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/spy0000157">Exercising with other people</a> <a href="https://www.livescience.com/40977-exercise-enjoyment-friends.html">can supply that enjoyment</a>, even if the activity itself is difficult or otherwise not something you love. Group exercise can turn working out into a fun social activity, which could lead to you continuing to do it.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374563/original/file-20201212-15-1ch39gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="people stretching while socially distanced in stadium seats" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374563/original/file-20201212-15-1ch39gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374563/original/file-20201212-15-1ch39gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374563/original/file-20201212-15-1ch39gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374563/original/file-20201212-15-1ch39gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374563/original/file-20201212-15-1ch39gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374563/original/file-20201212-15-1ch39gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374563/original/file-20201212-15-1ch39gr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Exercising together – whether online or safely in person – can help you stick to the program.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-participate-in-a-morning-yoga-session-on-august-22-news-photo/1228159941">Mark Makela/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.essence.com/lifestyle/health-wellness/fitness-accountability-partner-helps/">Exercising with others</a> can also <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2017.1280835">satisfy some basic psychological needs</a>. Any kind of exercise can help someone feel in control of their choices, but the social support from a group can <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2159676X.2017.1354059">reinforce a sense of autonomy</a>. Similarly, group exercise can increase feelings of mastery – thanks to growing competence, for example, at spinning or step aerobics. And it will certainly increase your connectedness with others. People <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igy007">naturally choose to keep up</a> fulfilling behaviors in the long term and they promote mental health – a win-win.</p>
<p>In contrast, exercise feels less compelling if your <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037//0003-066X.55.1.68">motivation is extrinsic</a> – for instance, someone else is telling you to exercise, or you’re primarily doing it to lose weight. In this case, sticking to a fitness regimen becomes less likely and less rewarding. Similarly, if the extrinsic factors go away – maybe you lose weight or decide you don’t care anymore about the number on your scale – then the motivation to exercise likely disappears as well.</p>
<h2>Buddies help make it a habit</h2>
<p>Exercising with others can make the whole process easier and more habitual. Friends can be your cue as well as your reward for exercising.</p>
<p>First, you look to other people to learn how to do things, and it’s a human tendency to model your behavior after those you see around you. When you <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2009.05.010">observe others breaking a sweat</a>, it can start to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000085">build your confidence in your own ability to exercise</a> – psychologists call this belief in yourself self-efficacy. You may then <a href="https://doi.org/10.1123/jsep.30.1.56">tend to model your behavior</a> after others’, too. This is very important for starting a new exercise routine, because how much you believe in your own ability to take on that yoga class or try some new equipment at the gym will predict whether you give it a shot.</p>
<p>Second, friends can remove some of the barriers to exercising. A workout buddy can provide reminders and encouragement to exercise, hold you accountable and even help with tangible logistics, like giving you a ride or sending links for Zoom class opportunities.</p>
<p>And don’t discount the competitive urge. A little friendly <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/better/health/why-you-should-work-out-crowd-ncna798936">competition provided by your group</a> can also boost the intensity of your effort.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2019.03.005">Habits are automatic behaviors</a> that you don’t have to spend a lot of energy forcing yourself to do – they’re your default, preferred behavior. You do them consistently and frequently without using up all your willpower. Exercise pals can help here, too. Habits need a cue to trigger the behavior, and a friend regularly texting that she’ll see you at the pool on your usual day to get together could do the trick.</p>
<p>Habits also require a reward to maintain, and intrinsic motivation that comes from exercising with others can be the payoff that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/hea0000249">keeps exercise part of your daily routine</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374564/original/file-20201212-20-183ohth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="people working out outdoors with instructor" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374564/original/file-20201212-20-183ohth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374564/original/file-20201212-20-183ohth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374564/original/file-20201212-20-183ohth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374564/original/file-20201212-20-183ohth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374564/original/file-20201212-20-183ohth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374564/original/file-20201212-20-183ohth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374564/original/file-20201212-20-183ohth.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The people in your group become an asset to help you get going and stick with it.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-take-an-outdoor-class-at-pylo-fitness-with-workout-news-photo/1227956484">Valerie Macon/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Sticking with each other and exercise</h2>
<p>Group exercise appears to hold some benefits that individual exercise may not.</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000103">Getting engaged</a> in group exercise may also <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10902087/">lead to a more consistent and resilient</a> exercise experience. Past research has shown that people who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1249/JES.0000000000000177">feel more connected</a> in their exercise class attend more sessions, arrive on time, are less likely to drop out, are more resistant to disruption and are more likely to have greater mental benefits from the exercise. Since quitting exercise programs is common and disruptions may easily throw people off their exercise routine, getting involved with a group exercise class might be a particularly good way to head off these problems. </p>
<p>When choosing an exercise group to join, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1249/JES.0000000000000177">consider how similar the other participants are to you</a> – think about age, gender, interests. You’re likely to form a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02879901">more cohesive group with people you identify with</a>, and these interconnected groups are more likely to stick together and continue exercising.</p>
<h2>Group support while safely distant</h2>
<p>So exercising with others can provide all the elements needed for a successful, enjoyable and active lifestyle. Especially if you’re feeling isolated by the pandemic and its effects, now could be the perfect time for you to give remote group exercise a try. If the weather works, maybe you can find a yoga class that meets outdoors with plenty of space between participants, or a running club whose members stay masked.</p>
<p>Virtual classes may function as a substitute for in-person group exercise classes. Yes, they may take a little more motivation to find and access, or call for equipment you don’t already have at home. But remote classes have additional potential benefits, including flexibility in schedule, diversity in activities and exercise types, and connecting with others who are physically distant.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149348/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Your most important piece of exercise gear may be the friends you buddy up with to work out.L. Alison Phillips, Associate Professor of Psychology, Iowa State UniversityJacob Meyer, Assistant Professor of Kinesiology, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1493022020-11-06T15:34:39Z2020-11-06T15:34:39ZCoronavirus: compliance with control measures will fall over the winter holidays, expert warns<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367941/original/file-20201106-15-ro0gc8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=457%2C395%2C4718%2C2793&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/group-friends-enjoying-christmas-drinks-bar-238694329">Monkey Business Images/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the holiday season approaches, we need to consider what effect it will have on people’s compliance with public health rules and the spread of COVID-19. Are concerns about broken rules and increasing cases unfounded? Or should policymakers implement stricter regulations – or even go so far as to cancel Christmas?</p>
<p>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/complying-with-lockdown-does-become-harder-over-time-heres-why-138691">previous</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/will-increasing-fines-make-people-comply-with-coronavirus-rules-146900">articles</a>, I have discussed how perceived risk and trust in authorities affect compliance with coronavirus guidelines, arguing for an explicit policy focus on increasing trust. These pieces focus on what we call individual decision making – that is, how people make decisions based on the information they receive and who delivers this information. </p>
<p>However, in the upcoming holidays we face a different problem: the effects our behaviour has on one another – or what we call social norms.</p>
<p>Social norms are rules that <a href="http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/507541482349883762/Chapter-2.pdf">guide our behaviour</a>. They are <a href="https://stanford.library.sydney.edu.au/archives/sum2016/entries/social-norms/">beliefs</a> about what other people are likely to do (descriptive norms) and what other people ought to do (prescriptive norms).</p>
<p>In general, they’re very useful. Norms help guide our behaviour and have been defined as the <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cement-Society-Study-Social-Order/dp/B0091Z4U5G/">“cement of society”</a>, the glue that holds us together. Simply put, in times of uncertainty, we often look to what others are doing to aid in our decision making.</p>
<p>Social norms have had a storied history in explaining <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Why-Humans-Cooperate-Evolutionary-Explanation-ebook/dp/B00556DWHM/">cooperation</a>, deterring <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1073780">crime</a>, and promoting <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15324834basp2101_3">recycling</a>, <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/261855">saving</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2950948">other household behaviours</a>. Perhaps more importantly, norms have been shown to be effective in <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/full/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015013">changing behaviour</a>.</p>
<h2>The power of the festive season</h2>
<p>This is why we need to pay attention to seasonal and religious holidays. They involve deep-rooted norms of behaviour that potentially have the power to pull us away from previous behaviours we’ve adopted.</p>
<p>For example, the US Thanksgiving holiday carries norms of feasting with family and friends, and its power to draw people into abnormal eating habits can be measured in people’s <a href="https://nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1475-2891-5-29">weight gain</a> across the period. </p>
<p>Another particularly illustrative example of norms shifting behaviour is a <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167268113002862">study</a> of credit card receipts at a restaurant in New York. It reports a significant increase in tipping during the holiday season, attributed to norms of pro-social behaviour during the holidays.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A signed credit card receipt on a restaurant table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367944/original/file-20201106-13-1llpdov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367944/original/file-20201106-13-1llpdov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367944/original/file-20201106-13-1llpdov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367944/original/file-20201106-13-1llpdov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367944/original/file-20201106-13-1llpdov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367944/original/file-20201106-13-1llpdov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367944/original/file-20201106-13-1llpdov.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Social norms are powerful enough to make people to spend money that they don’t need to.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/open-leather-bill-holder-restaurant-check-1106726063">Trong Nguyen/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many holidays similarly prescribe norms of behaviour. For example, the Christmas holidays carry norms of gift giving, church attendance, decorating the house and traditional Christmas meals. Traditions surrounding <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/reference/holidays/history-traditions-rosh-hashanah/">Rosh Hashanah</a>, the Jewish new year, include attending services at synagogues and celebrating with festive meals. Eid al-Fitr (Muslim) and Diwali (Hindu) traditions similarly include meeting family, exchanging gifts and money, and celebratory meals.</p>
<p>Naturally, these norms of behaviour can counter existing norms of compliance during this pandemic. In fact, coronavirus cases were appreciably higher in the aftermath of the <a href="https://www.timesofisrael.com/police-disperse-hundreds-of-ultra-orthodox-violating-lockdown-in-modiin-illit/">Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot</a> holidays in Israel and of <a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/2229196/live-176-stranded-pakistanis-india-return-today-nationwide-covid-19-tally-jumps-59151">Eid al-Fitr</a> in Pakistan. These increases occurred despite leaders <a href="https://jewishnews.timesofisrael.com/israel-to-impose-new-national-lockdown-for-rosh-hashanah-and-yom-kippur/">calling for restrained celebrations</a>, and were more prevalent among those that were more religious (and hence more likely to be susceptible to religious norms of behaviour).</p>
<p>My colleagues and I also recently issued a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3721080">working paper</a> that focuses on the effect of religious holidays on compliance with COVID-19 guidelines. Using a university student sample in Pakistan, we showed that compliance with behaviours that run counter to religious norms (leaving home, avoiding crowds and avoiding physical greetings) declined in the post-Eid period. Yet unrelated norms (such as mask wearing and shopping for groceries) remained unaffected, despite no change in either risk perceptions or trust in authorities.</p>
<h2>Contagious behaviour</h2>
<p>Combatting the effects of norms around the holiday season will be difficult, for two reasons. The first is that <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0884-z">norms can be misperceived</a>. </p>
<p>When this happens, individuals are likely to conform to behaviour that they <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13548506.2017.1338736">think is common</a>, rather than behaviour that might actually be commonplace. This can lead people to underestimate the prevalence of healthy behaviours or overestimate the prevalence of unhealthy behaviours, and then allow these assessments to drive their own decision making.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man washing his hands" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367943/original/file-20201106-13-og4ll0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/367943/original/file-20201106-13-og4ll0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367943/original/file-20201106-13-og4ll0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367943/original/file-20201106-13-og4ll0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367943/original/file-20201106-13-og4ll0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367943/original/file-20201106-13-og4ll0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/367943/original/file-20201106-13-og4ll0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Research has shown that people are more likely to wash their hands if they think other people do so frequently.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/coronavirus-pandemic-prevention-wash-hands-soap-1661809675">Maridav/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The second is that people react not just to the existing normative behaviour of others, but to changes in people’s behaviour too. In other words, if people see people changing from one behaviour to another, they might see that <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0956797617719950">change itself as a norm to adopt</a>. </p>
<p>What this means is that a small number of people changing their behaviour around the holidays could quickly snowball into lots of people subsequently changing too. The fact that people’s social networks are also one of the <a href="https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.soc.34.040507.134601">primary channels</a> for spreading health behaviours adds to the potential for a contagion effect in behaviour. When it comes to health, we’re keen to see what others are doing.</p>
<p>So overall, it looks like we have a problem. Without significant intervention, norms of behaviour during the holiday period have the potential to overturn the norms of compliance that governments have worked so hard to establish. If this happens, cases during and after the holiday period are likely to rise.</p>
<p>Hence, between now and then, policymakers need to reinforce the necessity of complying with public health measures, and information campaigns need to focus on the heightened risk of not doing so. By offering clear and consistent messaging on how people should behave, we might just be able to tread a line between dangerously raising viral transmission on the one hand, and having to shutdown for Christmas altogether.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/149302/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sheheryar Banuri does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Social norms are powerful forces, particularly around the festive season, and risk overriding protective behaviours we’ve adopted this year.Sheheryar Banuri, Associate Professor, School of Economics, University of East AngliaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1482942020-10-23T12:27:38Z2020-10-23T12:27:38ZSick of COVID-19? Here’s why you might have pandemic fatigue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365044/original/file-20201022-15-1mkl5c8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=346%2C198%2C2152%2C1416&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">It's tempting to take a break from pandemic precautions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/director-of-heart-vascular-interventional-labs-peter-news-photo/1209507716">Erin Clark for The Boston Globe via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As the pandemic drags on, following COVID-19 prevention guidelines can feel like more and more of a challenge.</p>
<p>This kind of fatigue is not unique to pandemic precautions like sticking with social distancing, masking up and keeping your hands washed. With all kinds of health-related behavior changes – including increasing <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.2008.00343.x">physical activity</a>, <a href="https://slate.com/technology/2015/03/diets-do-not-work-the-thin-evidence-that-losing-weight-makes-you-healthier.html">eating healthy</a> and decreasing <a href="https://www.fda.gov/tobacco-products/health-information/quitting-smoking-closer-every-attempt#:%7E:text=According%20to%20a%202015%20survey,quitting%20for%206%2D12%20months.">tobacco use</a> – at least half of people relapse within six months.</p>
<p>Think back to the start of April. Much of the United States was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-timeline.html">under stay-at-home orders</a>. New York City was experiencing close to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/new-york-coronavirus-cases.html">a thousand COVID-19 deaths a day</a>, and new cases of this previously unknown disease were popping up all over the country.</p>
<p>Coronavirus fears had people either ordering necessities for delivery or rushing through stores as fast as possible, avoiding everyone. When they got home, shoppers wiped down their groceries, vigorously washed hands, maybe even took a shower and changed into clean clothes. People got used to staying home.</p>
<p><iframe id="gEj7D" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/gEj7D/5/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>Today, there’s still no cure or vaccine for the coronavirus, and infection numbers are on the rise. Almost a quarter of a million Americans have died from COVID-19 and the risk of infection remains. Now is the time to strengthen your resolve and re-devote yourself to prevention measures.</p>
<p>But <a href="https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/308126/roundup-gallup-covid-coverage.aspx">fewer in the U.S. are reporting the fear</a> that triggered all those germ-avoiding actions in the spring. Why? </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=87v4Nk4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">As a public health researcher</a> who investigates health behaviors, I know there are several psychological reasons for why fatigue sets in. Luckily the research also suggests some tactics to help you stay safe as well as protect your mental health and well-being.</p>
<h2>How bad is it really?</h2>
<p>One explanation for falling off the prevention bandwagon comes down to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198109338915">two important predictors</a> of health behaviors.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>One is perceived susceptibility – how likely do you think you are to get a disease? </p></li>
<li><p>The second is perceived severity – if you do get it, how bad do you think it will it be?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>There have been millions of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. But all those people still add up to less than <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html">3% of the country’s total population</a>. Depending where you live, you may know only a few people who have come down with COVID-19, even though the nationwide numbers are high. This can reduce perceived susceptibility.</p>
<p>As doctors learned more <a href="https://www.nwpb.org/2020/10/20/studies-point-to-big-drop-in-covid-19-death-rates-as-hospitals-get-better-at-helping-people-survive/">about the coronavirus and treatment methods improved</a>, the death rate in the U.S. has also dropped. In May, 6% of diagnosed cases proved fatal, while less than <a href="https://ourworldindata.org/mortality-risk-covid?country=%7EUSA">3% are today</a>. This improvement can reduce perceived severity. </p>
<p>People look at trends like these and let themselves be lulled into believing they’re less susceptible to COVID-19 or that the disease’s severity isn’t that bad. After all, one might reason, it’s been eight months and I haven’t gotten sick.</p>
<h2>Everybody else is doing it</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.uky.edu/%7Eeushe2/BanduraPubs/Bandura1991OBHDP.pdf">Social norms</a> are unwritten rules about how you’re supposed to behave in society. While social norms can be communicated in many ways, one of the main paths is through observational learning. How do others like you behave in similar situations? Seeing that provides you with a road map for your own behavior.</p>
<p>When state governments decide to open bars, restaurants, gyms and movie theaters, you might read it as a signal that these places are now “safe” to visit. Likewise, when you see people socializing without masks and skipping the physical distancing, it looks “normal” and could make you more likely to forgo them yourself. It’s similar to how <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2004.05.021">peer groups strongly affect both alcohol</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2015.10.005">food consumption</a>.</p>
<h2>Yearning to connect</h2>
<p>Distancing efforts have increased <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/tra0000845">feelings of social isolation and loneliness</a> for many people, especially among older adults and people who live alone.</p>
<p>Human beings are naturally social animals. So <a href="https://doi.org/10.1353/pbm.2003.0063">social isolation</a> can be particularly unpleasant. And it can lead to a variety of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2017.07.035">poor health outcomes</a> including hypertension and poorer sleep. People were able to stop gathering with friends in the spring and avoid get-togethers. But it can be really hard to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0278-6133.13.1.39">stick long-term</a> with a behavior that can feel like it’s all downside and no upside. </p>
<p>The trick is to balance physical distancing with social connectedness. Researchers know that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1098-240X(200004)23:2%3C126::AID-NUR5%3E3.0.CO;2-2">reminiscing or having nostalgia</a> about drinking or smoking is one of the major risk factors for relapse.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365084/original/file-20201022-23-1cnpvyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="friends drinking and laughing at an outdoor bar" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365084/original/file-20201022-23-1cnpvyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/365084/original/file-20201022-23-1cnpvyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365084/original/file-20201022-23-1cnpvyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365084/original/file-20201022-23-1cnpvyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365084/original/file-20201022-23-1cnpvyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365084/original/file-20201022-23-1cnpvyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/365084/original/file-20201022-23-1cnpvyx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Remember the pleasures of the before times, but don’t let the memories trigger risky choices now.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/laughing-friends-sharing-drinks-and-food-at-outdoor-royalty-free-image/1063846450">Thomas Barwick/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>In the pandemic setting, this is like thinking about the way the world was before COVID-19. A drink after work with a group of friends, a game of pickup basketball or a live concert are all things that people miss in today’s world – and it’s hard not to dwell on the things you’re not getting to do. But while thinking about them can bring back fond memories, it can also encourage you to engage in risky behaviors. </p>
<p>[<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=experts">Expertise in your inbox. Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter and get expert takes on today’s news, every day.</a></em>]</p>
<h2>Staying safe and sane</h2>
<p>Case counts are rising. The weather is getting colder in many areas, making outdoor dining and socializing less feasible. People need to double down on a level of precaution that can be sustained for months to come, keeping safe while not adding to their social isolation.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html">Some recommendations must be strictly followed</a>. Hand-washing <a href="https://www.bradleycorp.com/handwashing">increased dramatically</a> after the start of the pandemic. Hopefully, this will remain high, since it is a basic way to ward off many infectious diseases and one you can sustain without any negative effects on mental health.</p>
<p>Masks are also important. A study from August showed that <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/08/27/more-americans-say-they-are-regularly-wearing-masks-in-stores-and-other-businesses/">85% of Americans</a> wore masks most of the time in stores. This needs to stay high to help limit the number of new cases.</p>
<p>That leaves physical distancing, which is probably the most difficult. Public health experts often advocate a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/13.1.53">harm reduction approach</a> for behaviors where abstinence is not feasible – it’s a way to minimize but not eliminate risk. Crowds and large gatherings still need to be avoided. If Zoom and other video chats have grown stale, hosting your own small get-togethers is a possibility. Be aware, though, that while there are <a href="https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/doh/downloads/pdf/imm/covid-19-getting-together-safely.pdf">ways to minimize the dangers</a>, socializing in a group comes with risks. Remember, your get-together is only as safe as your riskiest friend.</p>
<p>Pandemic fatigue is real, and it’s draining to stay on high alert month after month after month. Understanding it better might help you strengthen your resolve.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/148294/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay Maddock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s draining and depressing to stay on high alert month after month after month. Understanding pandemic fatigue better might help you strengthen your resolve.Jay Maddock, Professor of Public Health, Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1468452020-09-25T04:51:19Z2020-09-25T04:51:19ZYou wouldn’t hit a dog, so why kill one in Minecraft? Why violence against virtual animals is an ethical issue<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359919/original/file-20200925-20-g81hd.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C337%2C1405%2C651&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brownpau/5603896725/in/photolist-9xcrg4-b9EQ7B-ahTzoz-cLsmMf-cLsmL9-9uSV76-goVVDG-goVHnL-dNkdAw-goW4WU-pCNZv7-fz9xAD-dPKZRV-21LdSt5-ahTzoK-dQbZ8r-bDsiPN-cGJguU-a9Koyc-9QkLiG-zBE14F-2be9ayX-dWYd8M-2dAXNvH-2jhHPEw-pdrAcy-BTAYAk-B9dh1Z-2fp4GoB-2d3PjZP-f1Atmc-cGJgDL-285YffY-qvjHqX-cKAbrq-fz9xAZ-9F9jUS-eeZJFQ-9wssjg-BH1BpS-C3JJz7-pdtuLx-pbrvDm-x5Th5S-C8wmqW-BFByLh-efwLWs-aTrdXV-2ibzdRx-2gnW1fU">Paulo O/Flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Violence against animals in video games is ubiquitous. Players can kill or torture animals in various popular games, including Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V. The rise of this (increasingly realistic) trend in games, along with people’s tendency to go along with it, raises important questions.</p>
<p>Violence against humans in video games has long been contentious – underpinned by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/violent-video-games-and-real-violence-theres-a-link-but-its-not-so-simple-63038">never-ending debate</a> over whether on-screen violence begets the real thing. But violence against animals in video games has attracted considerably less attention. </p>
<p>In a <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10676-020-09557-9">recently published paper</a>, we argue there is good reason to think violence against animals in video games is problematic – perhaps even more so than in-game violence against humans. We think game violence against animals is more likely to promote disrespect for their living counterparts.</p>
<h2>The jury is out</h2>
<p>In 2005, <a href="https://www.refused-classification.com/censorship/games/p.html">Australia</a> banned a first-person shooter game called Postal 2, in which players could mutilate and desecrate (virtual) human bodies. Australia has controversially banned several games available in other countries because of depictions of violence and other potentially objectionable themes. </p>
<hr>
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<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/australia-bans-video-games-for-things-youd-see-in-movies-but-gamers-can-access-them-anyway-122183">Australia bans video games for things you'd see in movies. But gamers can access them anyway</a>
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<p>Players evidently have varying views on harming virtual animals. Some express concern or remorse — one gamer <a href="https://www.giantbomb.com/forums/red-dead-redemption-3153/feel-bad-about-killing-animals-419952/">wrote</a> on a forum:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>It’s weird how bad I feel about killing animals in the game … I will actively try and shoot guys off horses instead of just shooting the horses.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) – itself a somewhat <a href="https://www.peta.org/about-peta/faq/why-does-peta-use-controversial-tactics/">troubled</a> <a href="https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/inventions/elon-musk-told-to-implant-neuralink-in-his-own-brain-by-peta-after-pig-demo/news-story/2221cb3f5fc98765e3ae55318480c00e">organisation</a> – has <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/josephbernstein/11-classic-video-games-that-peta-should-protest">criticised games</a> it says “promote hurting and killing” animals. Examples include whale-hunting in Assassin’s Creed, and <a href="https://www.thedrum.com/news/2020/05/22/peta-storms-animal-crossing-protest-treatment-digital-animals">fishing</a> and <a href="https://www.peta.org/features/animal-crossing-new-horizons-vegan/">catching bugs</a> in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. </p>
<p>Other players have no such qualms, however, with one <a href="https://www.giantbomb.com/forums/red-dead-redemption-3153/feel-bad-about-killing-animals-419952/">writing</a>: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>I kill humans in games all the time. Why would I care about animals?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many share this view. Video game “<a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10676-017-9420-x">amoralists</a>” say abusing animals (or humans) in video games can’t be wrong, as the “victims” are virtual and no living being is hurt. </p>
<p>It’s not clear exactly why players feel so differently about in-game violence. Attitudes towards in-game violence may be shaped by personal views, social mores, <a href="https://search.proquest.com/docview/1324953039?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true">gaming culture</a> and also the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15213269.2016.1142382">amount</a> someone plays violent games. </p>
<p>If video games can promote particular ethical messages, could certain games encourage disrespect for living things? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359922/original/file-20200925-16-1h2vmuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sniper focuses on a chicken in a video game." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359922/original/file-20200925-16-1h2vmuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359922/original/file-20200925-16-1h2vmuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359922/original/file-20200925-16-1h2vmuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359922/original/file-20200925-16-1h2vmuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359922/original/file-20200925-16-1h2vmuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359922/original/file-20200925-16-1h2vmuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359922/original/file-20200925-16-1h2vmuc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">First-person shooters, such as Call of Duty, have been around for more than 45 years now. They’re some of the most popular video games today.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">jit/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A moral dilemma in plain sight</h2>
<p>Social scientists have long debated whether violent video games cause antisocial attitudes towards other <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsos.171474">people</a>. Some think they <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20192553/">might</a>, but conclusive evidence for a causal link is <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/soej.12139">lacking</a>. The moral issue of violence against animals in video games has received much less philosophical attention.</p>
<p>Both animals and humans are often portrayed as objects to kill and harm for fun in gaming. However, animals are presented in even more disposable ways. They are often mere tools for players to kill to complete quests, or to gain materials and trophies.</p>
<p>This is true even for games in which players are encouraged to reflect morally on their in-game actions. In Dragon Age: Inquisition, the game’s characters will approve or disapprove of a wide variety of player actions. But harming non-aggressive wild animals is not one of the things that prompts a moral reaction.</p>
<p>While societal respect for animals is growing (<a href="https://www.sciencespo.fr/en/news/news/animal-rights-slow-but-definite-progress/3683">albeit slowly</a>), animals today are routinely treated very badly. We confine them to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/04/factory-farming-destructive-wasteful-cruel-says-philip-lymbery-farmageddon-author">factory farms</a>, put them on <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/10/live-exports-mass-deaths-going-unpunished-as-holes-in-system-revealed">live export ships</a> where many suffer (and even die) and “<a href="https://www.ava.com.au/policy-advocacy/policies/euthanasia/euthanasia/">humanely</a>” kill unwanted companion animals. </p>
<p>Many of us ignore these realities. Morally speaking, animals are relatively invisible to society – whereas other humans generally are not. In this context, depicting animals as disposable commodities in video games could reinforce disrespect towards them, at least for many players. </p>
<p>Some games may help normalise the mistreatment and moral invisibility of animals. </p>
<h2>Examining our prejudices</h2>
<p>So if video games can, in fact, reinforce disrespect for animals, does this mean we should ban or boycott them? We don’t advocate that. However, it would be useful for scientists to investigate whether video games do help or hinder social respect for animals. </p>
<p>Game designers may also consider depicting animals in ways that encourage (or at least don’t inadvertently discourage) respecting them. Some already do this. In Red Dead Redemption, <a href="https://reddead.fandom.com/wiki/Honor">killing your horse</a> leads to the same loss of “honour” points as killing an innocent person. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359923/original/file-20200925-16-1m1h500.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Character on his horse in Red Dead Redemption 2." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359923/original/file-20200925-16-1m1h500.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/359923/original/file-20200925-16-1m1h500.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359923/original/file-20200925-16-1m1h500.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359923/original/file-20200925-16-1m1h500.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359923/original/file-20200925-16-1m1h500.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359923/original/file-20200925-16-1m1h500.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/359923/original/file-20200925-16-1m1h500.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the Red Dead game series, ‘honour’ is a system that measures the social acceptability of the main character in his world. Specific in-game actions are considered honourable or dishonourable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">ekkun/Flickr</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, players themselves could choose to become more aware of how animals are portrayed in the various games they spend hours of their lives absorbed in. </p>
<p>Given the enormous popularity and ongoing transformation of video games, there is an opportunity here for all of us to reassess our often unjust treatment of animals.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/violence-towards-women-in-the-video-game-red-dead-redemption-2-evokes-toxic-masculinity-106920">Violence towards women in the video game Red Dead Redemption 2 evokes toxic masculinity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/146845/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Video game ‘amoralists’ argue killing in gaming isn’t harmful since no living being is actually hurt. But when it comes to hurting virtual animals, we disagree.Simon Coghlan, Senior Research Fellow in Digital Ethics, Centre for AI and Digital Ethics, School of Computing and Information Systems, The University of MelbourneLucy Sparrow, PhD Candidate in Human-Computer Interaction, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1233112020-08-18T12:17:53Z2020-08-18T12:17:53ZNature and nurture both contribute to gender inequality in leadership – but that doesn’t mean patriarchy is forever<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353241/original/file-20200817-22-tf73d9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=61%2C176%2C5649%2C4075&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who gets a seat at the table?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/1950s-six-businessmen-executives-around-a-conference-table-news-photo/563966121">H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353262/original/file-20200817-22-ozhnb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Kamala Harris at podium with Biden in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353262/original/file-20200817-22-ozhnb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353262/original/file-20200817-22-ozhnb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353262/original/file-20200817-22-ozhnb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353262/original/file-20200817-22-ozhnb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=609&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353262/original/file-20200817-22-ozhnb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353262/original/file-20200817-22-ozhnb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353262/original/file-20200817-22-ozhnb9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=765&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Gender expectations can make it harder for women to achieve positions of leadership.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/democratic-presidential-nominee-former-us-vice-president-news-photo/1228031238">Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Kamala Harris’ candidacy as vice president of the United States <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/News/womens-groups-sexist-attacks-stop-kamala-harriss-historic/story?id=72329604">provoked familiar criticism</a>, based in part on her identity as a woman. Critics find her too angry, too confident, too competitive. But when women do act less competitively, they are seen as less capable of leadership. This is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1751-9004.2010.00274.x">“double-bind” women face</a> when aspiring to leadership positions. </p>
<p>To overcome it, we need to understand where it comes from. Why do gender norms privilege men as leaders?</p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.54.6.408">Some psychologists tie</a> the origins of gender norms to aspects of our nature – the greater physical strength of men and pregnancy and breastfeeding in women. The idea is that in our hunter-gatherer ancestors, physical strength made men more efficient at, and thus more likely to specialize in, tasks like hunting or warfare. Ancestral women specialized in tasks like infant care, which could be compromised by excessive risk-taking or competitiveness. This got the ball rolling, so the argument goes, toward gender norms that women be less competitive than men, including in the pursuit of leadership. </p>
<p><a href="https://sites.google.com/site/chrisvonrueden/home">As an evolutionary anthropologist who studies leadership</a>, I think this evolutionary explanation is not especially persuasive on its own. My view is that gender norms are not just influenced by the evolution of our bodies, but also by the <a href="https://www.apa.org/pubs/books/4318066">evolution of our minds</a>. </p>
<p>Men didn’t specialize in tasks like hunting just because of greater muscle mass, but also because men evolved to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/0162-3095(85)90041-X">take risks to “show-off”</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2019.07.013">to overtly compete</a> more than women. These are only average differences – many women are more overtly competitive than the average man.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, evolved sex differences in behavior contribute to – but neither determine nor ethically justify – the gender norms that societies create. I suggest that taking an evolutionary perspective can actually help reduce gender inequality in leadership.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353264/original/file-20200817-18-1i2jss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="two male big horns locking horns" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353264/original/file-20200817-18-1i2jss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353264/original/file-20200817-18-1i2jss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353264/original/file-20200817-18-1i2jss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353264/original/file-20200817-18-1i2jss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=417&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353264/original/file-20200817-18-1i2jss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353264/original/file-20200817-18-1i2jss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353264/original/file-20200817-18-1i2jss7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=523&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Two bighorn rams butt heads in a fight for dominance.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/bighorn-headache-royalty-free-image/486400634">RichardSeeley/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Evolutionary origins of sex differences in competition</h2>
<p>Across animal species, males tend to compete more violently and more frequently than females. Many evolutionary biologists theorize this is due to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms12517">sex differences in parental investment</a>. As females spend time bearing and nursing young, males have access to a smaller remaining pool of potential mates. Facing greater competition over mates, males tend to evolve greater <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1500983">body mass, weaponry such as horns, and physical aggression</a> to prevail against rivals. Females tend to evolve greater selectivity in their use of aggression, in part because injury <a href="https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2013.0074">can impede parenting</a>.</p>
<p>Do human beings fit these trends? A man of average physical strength <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2009.04.002">is stronger than 99% of women</a>. Even in the most egalitarian small-scale societies, studies find that men are likely to be more <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-010-9094-0">physically aggressive</a> and more likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s40750-014-0015-z">directly compete against others</a>.</p>
<p>Across studies, women are more often observed to engage in indirect competition, such as <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2018-11632-009">gossip or social exclusion</a>. Women’s willingness to compete may also be more selective. For example, when competition <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1520235113">directly benefits their children</a> or when <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10683-018-9563-6">results are not made public</a>, women, on average, can be as competitive as men.</p>
<p>Men may also have evolved greater motivation to compete by <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0730938400017214">forming large, hierarchical coalitions of same-sex peers</a>. Men can be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-014-9198-z">quicker to resolve low-level conflicts</a> – which goes along with valuing relationships based on how much they help with coalition-building. Women’s same-sex coalitions tend to be smaller and more egalitarian, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0055851">enforced through threat of social exclusion</a>.</p>
<p>Historically, these average sex differences influenced the creation of gender norms to which women and men were expected to conform. These norms <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.03.005">restricted women’s activities beyond the household</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02734133">increased men’s control over politics</a>.</p>
<p>Importantly, different environments can strengthen or weaken sex differences. Evolution is not deterministic when it comes to human behavior. For example, in societies where <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02436620">warfare was frequent</a> or <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjt005">food production was more reliant on men’s labor</a>, you’re more likely to find cultural emphasis on male competitiveness and coalition-building and restriction of women’s opportunities. </p>
<h2>Implications for dismantling patriarchy</h2>
<p>Recognizing the influence of evolution on behavior and gender norms isn’t just of academic interest. I think it can suggest ways to reduce gender inequality in leadership in the real world.</p>
<p>First, trying to get women and men to on average behave the same – like simply encouraging women to “lean in” – is unlikely to have tremendous effect.</p>
<p>Second, people should call attention to those traits that help elevate many unqualified men to positions of power. These traits include larger <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430212437211">body size</a>, and men’s greater tendency to <a href="https://ideas.ted.com/why-do-so-many-incompetent-men-become-leaders-and-what-can-we-do-about-it/">self-promote and to exaggerate their competence</a>.</p>
<p>Third, people should scrutinize the extent to which organizations reward men’s more than women’s preferred forms of competition and cooperation. <a href="https://hbr.org/2018/11/how-masculinity-contests-undermine-organizations-and-what-to-do-about-it">Organizational goals can suffer</a> when competitive masculinity dominates an organization’s culture.</p>
<p>Fourth, organizations that have a more equitable mix of male and female leaders have access to more diverse leadership styles. This is a good thing when it comes to tackling all kinds of challenges. In certain scenarios, leader effectiveness may hinge more on risk-seeking, direct competitiveness and creation of rigid hierarchies – on average favoring male leaders.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353265/original/file-20200817-14-nb3h6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Jacinda Ardern at podium" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353265/original/file-20200817-14-nb3h6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353265/original/file-20200817-14-nb3h6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353265/original/file-20200817-14-nb3h6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353265/original/file-20200817-14-nb3h6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=700&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353265/original/file-20200817-14-nb3h6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353265/original/file-20200817-14-nb3h6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353265/original/file-20200817-14-nb3h6t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=880&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has won accolades for how her country had managed the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-speaks-to-media-during-a-news-photo/1266670664">Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images News via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/job.2031">In other contexts</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.129.4.569">perhaps the majority</a>, leader effectiveness may depend more on risk aversion, less direct forms of competition, and more empathy-driven forms of relationship-building – <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393352313">on average favoring women leaders</a>. This case has been made for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/world/coronavirus-women-leaders.html">responses of women-led governments to the current coronavirus pandemic</a>, particularly relative to the <a href="https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/masks-and-emasculation-why-some-men-refuse-to-take-safety-precautions/">bravado of presidents like Donald Trump or Jair Bolsonaro</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/the-daily-3?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>.]</p>
<p>Finally, people can rely on other human tendencies – including the impulse to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-019-0228-7">emulate the prestigious</a> – to chip away at gender norms that favor men as leaders. The more that existing leaders, male or female, promote women as leaders, the more it normalizes women at the top. A now-famous study in India randomly assigned villages to elect women as chief councilors; girls in those villages subsequently completed more years of formal education and were <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1212382">more likely to aspire to careers outside the home</a>.</p>
<p>Patriarchy is not an inevitable consequence of human nature. Rather, better understanding of the latter is key to ending the “double-bind” that keeps women out of leadership.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/123311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher von Rueden does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Recognizing the influence of evolution on behavior and gender norms suggests ways to reduce gender inequality in leadership in the real world.Christopher von Rueden, Associate Professor of Leadership Studies, University of RichmondLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1222542019-12-18T13:51:45Z2019-12-18T13:51:45ZHere’s how you can be nudged to eat healthier, recycle and make better decisions every day<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307444/original/file-20191217-58353-1ngmh4r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=318%2C103%2C2672%2C1809&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Were you subtly encouraged to make that menu choice?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-choose-food-decide-delicious-dish-1113934814">Supavadee butradee/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Every day, you make important choices – about whether to feast on fries or take a brisk walk, whether to spend or save your paycheck, whether to buy the sustainable option or the disposable plastic one. </p>
<p>Life is made up of countless decisions. <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300122237/nudge">The idea of nudging people</a> in the right direction, instead of relying on their internal motivation, has gained traction over the last decade.</p>
<p>In general, nudging involves gently coaxing someone into a decision or behavior. The perfect nudge is one that results in the desired decision or behavior without the person recognizing any external influence.</p>
<p>Think of employees being <a href="https://www.nber.org/chapters/c4539.pdf">automatically enrolled in retirement savings programs</a>. Workers who must opt out, instead of needing to opt in, participate more in retirement savings. Or picture those little cards in hotel bathrooms encouraging people to reuse their towels by stating that most hotel guests do, instead of appealing to the guests’ social responsibility.</p>
<p>In these and countless similar situations, people feel in control, but were nudged to prefer one option over the other.</p>
<p>So how does all this nudging work within the mind? As someone who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Aw35hfgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">studies consumer decision-making</a>, I can tell you: It’s complicated.</p>
<h2>You’re of two (or more) minds</h2>
<p>Neuroscientists, starting with pioneers like Antonio Damasio, have shown that <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/297609/descartes-error-by-antonio-damasio/9780143036227">the brain is not like a computer</a> where complex programs deliver optimal solutions. In fact, the mind seems to involve <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393334777">many relatively simple systems</a>, some inside the head and some <a href="https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/embodied-mind-revised-edition">distributed throughout the body</a>.</p>
<p>These systems are not always in agreement. Some systems are selfish and shortsighted, some care about relationships with others and some prioritize transcendent things such as God and the future of humanity. In addition, people aren’t equally conscious of each mechanism, so that <a href="https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374533557">sometimes you make decisions carefully and thoughtfully</a> and other times you make them fast and intuitively.</p>
<p>When your systems are in contention, which one informs your next decision <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393334777">depends on what else is happening</a> in that moment. A diabetic, for example, may thoughtfully consider his long-term health and family responsibilities – and even God’s will – when deciding to eat the salad and not the breadsticks at Olive Garden one day. But on his next visit, he might respond to the smell of fresh-baked bread by devouring every breadstick in the basket. Different situations, different mechanisms, different decisions.</p>
<h2>Appeals to your internal norms</h2>
<p>Nudging can work via many mechanisms, some conscious and some not. Typically you don’t recognize you’re being nudged.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307269/original/file-20191216-124027-1unsvxv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Everyone else reuses the towels …</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/lePb2Ojozt4">Andrea Davis/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One nudge method relies on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2006.09.004">highlighting the decisions of others</a> you may consider influential. After reading that “Most other guests staying at this hotel reuse towels,” many people envision others like them or maybe of higher status reusing towels. They feel compelled to align their behavior with that of the majority in order to fit in. The decision is theirs, but they’ve been nudged.</p>
<p>Another nudge technique focuses on how one should act in a particular situation. These are sometimes called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2006.09.004">injunctive norms</a>,” and they can vary by culture. Imagine the towel appeal had instead read, “By reusing towels, you join millions who care about the environment.” In this case the guest’s subconscious concern about earning the disapproval of those “millions” of others triggers him to hang up his towels.</p>
<p>And if the towel message is instead phrased that “reusing towels meets a high standard for environmental responsibility,” it highlights self-imposed standards or norms, if they exist in the decision maker. Such personal norms are termed injunctive because they involve beliefs about right and wrong that consider transcendent and abstract concepts, such as devotion and obedience to God.</p>
<p>Interestingly, such prompting – whether by subjective social or personal norms – does not work on everyone. <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/philosophy/political-philosophy/grammar-society-nature-and-dynamics-social-norms?format=PB">Some may work better</a> in some cultures (for instance, in Asian societies) and with some age groups (such as in younger people) than others.</p>
<h2>Setting the scene for a desired choice</h2>
<p>Another way to nudge people is to change the decision environment. This technique is sometimes called “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/bdm.1897">choice architecture</a>.”</p>
<p>Let’s assume that a grocery store is trying to encourage consumers to purchase ecologically responsible products, such as recycled paper notebooks. If all eco-friendly products are displayed together in an end-of-aisle display, people notice and their internalized norms are activated. But it may not translate into multiple purchases, because buying just one product suffices to meet the norm. If the products are displayed throughout the store, though, so multiple in-store displays can re-trigger the internalized norm, it’s likely that more ecologically responsible purchases will be made in the same shopping trip. </p>
<p>Nudging people is not deception. In most cases, nudging works by raising a particular decision or behavior’s prominence. If you’re already predisposed toward something – like eating healthy – a nudge helps tip your mental mechanisms in that direction. Nudges are reinforcement, especially in cases when your decision-making mechanisms are in contention with each other – like when the aroma of fresh bread is wafting through the air.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/307271/original/file-20191216-124009-vt83x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">That scent of fresh-baked bread could be used to nudge you in the direction the restaurant prefers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/photos/KZwp2IIyXmA">Toa Heftiba/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the same time, that wafting aroma is in itself a nudge. It may be deliberately enhanced to promote pleasurable consumption that improves mood and may lead to more spending or more generous tipping. Nudging can work to enhance or suppress virtuous behaviors, and it is the responsibility of companies and organizations to use nudging judiciously and responsibly.</p>
<p>Nudging cannot make people do something they don’t want to do, although sometimes the desire is nonconscious and lurking in the background. It only encourages them to follow through on a decision or behavior that may be currently overshadowed by other factors. It’s when individuals believe consciously that the decision or behavior – be it healthy eating, buying environmentally responsible products, or saving for retirement – is beneficial that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/15534510500181459">nudging works best</a>.</p>
<p>[ <em>Insight, in your inbox each day.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=insight">You can get it with The Conversation’s email newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/122254/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>José Antonio Rosa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A scholar who studies consumer decision-making explains just what it is in the human mind that makes people susceptible to nudges toward one behavior or another.José Antonio Rosa, Professor of Marketing and John and Deborah Ganoe Faculty Fellow, Iowa State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1268892019-11-13T13:09:44Z2019-11-13T13:09:44ZHouse impeachment inquiry may help restore the political and social norms that Trump flouts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301390/original/file-20191112-178506-16qwgqt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Trump has broken a lot of norms.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Seth Wenig</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>President Donald Trump regularly uses blatant violations of long-established social and political norms to <a href="https://www.the-american-interest.com/2018/01/14/trump-the-authentic/">signal his “authenticity”</a> to supporters. </p>
<p>Asking <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-urges-ukraine-china-to-investigate-the-bidens-11570114755">foreign countries</a> to investigate and deliver dirt on his political opponents, which prompted an impeachment inquiry in the U.S. House of Representatives, is the most recent example in a long string of norm-shattering behaviors. Other examples of flouting the standards of his presidential office include <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/08/trump-defends-white-nationalist-protesters-some-very-fine-people-on-both-sides/537012/">defending white nationalists</a>, <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/hes-not-war-hero-donald-trump-mocks-john-mccains-service-n394391">attacking prisoners of war</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/02/15/trumps-emergency-is-his-latest-assault-norms-american-democracy/">abusing the use of emergency powers</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/27/politics/judge-curiel-trump-border-wall/index.html">personally criticizing federal judges</a> and <a href="https://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/2018/01/14/shattered-norms-in-just-one-year-has-donald-trump-changed-the-presidency-forever/">much more</a>. </p>
<p>Norms are perceptions or beliefs about what we understand the rules for acceptable behavior to be. They are powerful predictors of behavior. By openly broadcasting his anomalous actions and views, Trump is shifting public attitudes about what is deemed appropriate – not only in politics, but also <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/early-evidence-of-a-trump-effect-on-bullying-in-schools/">in society</a>.</p>
<p>However, based on my research on <a href="https://www.sunitasah.com/publications">institutional corruption, ethical decision-making and the power of professional norms</a>, I know norms can be shifted – even reversed – by activities like the House’s impeachment inquiry. </p>
<h2>The power of norms</h2>
<p>Norms are crucial in understanding how people succumb to unethical influences. We often decide what to do in a situation by first looking at what others are doing. </p>
<p>For example, if a <a href="https://financialservices.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/Documents/research-paper-conflicts-interest-disclosure.pdf">financial adviser</a> starts working in an institution in which her managers and leaders condone unethical practices that put profits over clients, she will understand the norm in that environment to be “self-interest first.” It then becomes perfectly appropriate, and even desirable, for that adviser to succumb to conflicts of interest and neglect or even defraud clients in the pursuit of profits. </p>
<p>Such behavior was evident in financial crises in the <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GPO-FCIC/pdf/GPO-FCIC.pdf">U.S.</a> and more recently in Australia, which <a href="https://financialservices.royalcommission.gov.au/publications/Documents/research-paper-conflicts-interest-disclosure.pdf">I examined</a> for the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Financial Services Industry. </p>
<p>And institutional norms, once set, can be incredibly persistent.</p>
<p>My recent research shows that requiring advisers to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2019.07.005">disclose conflicts of interest</a> – the ways they would profit from their advice – doesn’t work if the company’s norms put self-interest first. In fact, disclosure in these instances can actually make things worse by leading to more biased advice. </p>
<p>However, if the institutional norm was to put “clients first,” disclosure improved the quality of advice. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301611/original/file-20191113-77342-15pcfjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/301611/original/file-20191113-77342-15pcfjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301611/original/file-20191113-77342-15pcfjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301611/original/file-20191113-77342-15pcfjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301611/original/file-20191113-77342-15pcfjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301611/original/file-20191113-77342-15pcfjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/301611/original/file-20191113-77342-15pcfjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Diplomats testify during the first public impeachment hearing on Nov. 13.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Trump-Impeachment/1f4c85f1e0a44b259e78ae09859b1143/31/0">Jim Lo Scalzo/Pool Photo</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How norms shift</h2>
<p>Fortunately, Americans draw on many sources of information to perceive norms, not just the president’s deeds and tweets. </p>
<p>The behavior of other people, mass media and laws all factor into how we think about norms – good or bad – and can influence norm shifts. </p>
<p>For example, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage in 2015, <a href="https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/3875/09456581f4f69c7d1a448a04da35ac2c0210.pdf">a survey of norms and attitudes</a> revealed that Americans perceived stronger and increasing public support for gay marriage after the ruling. This shift in perceived norms occurred in spite of the fact that personal attitudes toward gay marriage did not immediately change.</p>
<p>These shifts matter because norms can actually change our minds over time. A more <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/116/18/8846">recent 2019 study</a> found that the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage ultimately changed attitudes as well as norms, resulting in a reduced anti-gay bias in many parts of the country.</p>
<h2>Re-establishing ethical norms</h2>
<p>Although people select which news sources and peers to pay attention to, it is hard to ignore the behavior of the president. That’s why pursuing Trump’s impeachment, regardless of whether it is successful or not, is necessary to give a clear, authoritative legal signal of what is unacceptable behavior. </p>
<p>Of course, re-establishing the norms that have been broken over the past few years will take more than the actions of the political party that opposes the president. The voices of Republicans are also important. But so far, their <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/30/opinion/republicans-trump-impeachment.html">general silence</a> has only strengthened Trump’s ability to break down norms. </p>
<p>Research on <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/milgram.html">obedience</a> and <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html">conformity</a> show that all it takes is one dissenting voice to speak out against authority to inspire others to do the same. </p>
<p>If more <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/11/03/775897740/whistleblower-offers-to-field-written-questions-about-call-trump-says-was-perfec">whistleblowers</a>, <a href="https://www.axios.com/john-kasich-donald-trump-impeachment-396c6ca9-9ce4-4e7f-9e0b-bd14c9eab250.html">Republicans</a> and members of the administration speak up, the ethical, social and political norms that Trump has broken may start to regain their vitality.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/126889/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sunita Sah is a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation. The Academy of Management is a funding partner of The Conversation US.</span></em></p>Norms are perceptions or beliefs about what we understand the rules for acceptable behavior to be. Trump’s impeachment could help restore some of them.Sunita Sah, Associate Professor of Management and Organizations, Cornell UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1244922019-10-02T20:04:19Z2019-10-02T20:04:19ZHow a Minecraft world has built a safe online playground for autistic kids<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295129/original/file-20191001-173402-oj2nm5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C1262%2C1021&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kathryn Ringland</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>For autistic children, online social interactions can be just as fraught as those in the offline world. The community at <a href="https://www.autcraft.com/">Autcraft</a>, which is built around a customised version of the popular game Minecraft, has set out to create a safe virtual playground. </p>
<p>In the process, they may be demonstrating the kind of filtered, structured environment in which more and more socialisation will occur as online and offline worlds collide.</p>
<p>In <a href="https://kateringland.com/minecraft/">my research</a>, I have worked with members of the Autcraft community to better understand how they are keeping autistic children safe while they play. I found they use a combination of modifying the software of Minecraft itself (called “modding”) and social structure or rules.</p>
<p>Autcraft uses Minecraft to do four key things for autistic children: it gives them structure, creates a safe social space, lets them filter their experience in various ways, and helps them unleash their imaginations.</p>
<h2>A structured playground</h2>
<p>The Minecraft game world is structured to begin with, as the game contains boundaries and rules that players must follow. The Autcraft community uses extra software plug-ins to make the game world a little easier, especially for younger players. </p>
<p>For example, players can mark out their own plots of land so that they, and specified friends, are the only ones who can build there. This keeps other players from changing their houses and other creations without permission.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/minecraft-can-increase-problem-solving-collaboration-and-learning-yes-at-school-113335">Minecraft can increase problem solving, collaboration and learning - yes, at school</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>On top of this sort of “physical” structure, the Autcraft community also has social structure. This takes the form of rules that all community members must follow, as well as norms around friendliness and helpfulness. These norms are built into the game through tools such as community chests where players can leave things they no longer need for others to use.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295132/original/file-20191001-173375-nyu3kw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295132/original/file-20191001-173375-nyu3kw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295132/original/file-20191001-173375-nyu3kw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295132/original/file-20191001-173375-nyu3kw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=386&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295132/original/file-20191001-173375-nyu3kw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295132/original/file-20191001-173375-nyu3kw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295132/original/file-20191001-173375-nyu3kw.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=485&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">‘Community chests’ are places to leave unwanted items for others to collect.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kathryn Ringland</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Autcraft uses the game world of Minecraft as a safe social space. Children come to play with friends after school – often friends they only know through the game, not in the physical world. Hanging out in Minecraft looks like hanging out in the playground. Some children are building, some are playing games such as hide and seek, and some are just hanging out and talking via text chat. </p>
<h2>Filtered interactions</h2>
<p>Minecraft, as a game, filters and simplifies things in ways that can be helpful for autistic players. Characters are fairly crude representations of people. They do not have facial expressions or much in the way of body language. Everything is communicated through character movements (such as jumping around or giving away items) or via text. </p>
<p>While the text chat can be overwhelming at times (even for a researcher such as me), it’s still a filtered version of human interaction that makes socialising less stressful and more fun for autistic youth.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/stop-worrying-about-screen-time-its-your-childs-screen-experience-that-matters-118610">Stop worrying about screen 'time'. It's your child’s screen experience that matters</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>People with autism also often need to adjust their sensory intake to suit their needs. Volume and brightness can easily be adjusted in Minecraft, and players also vary their sensory intake by moving their characters around. For example, I saw one player bury their character underground to make their screen go dark for a small visual sensory break. </p>
<p>Autcraft has also built virtual sensory rooms that offer a variety of sensory inputs and moods, ranging from a bright multicoloured room with spider webs for texture to a serene garden, rooms where the door shuts for darkness, and a cozy library. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295134/original/file-20191001-173387-ftk49r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/295134/original/file-20191001-173387-ftk49r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295134/original/file-20191001-173387-ftk49r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295134/original/file-20191001-173387-ftk49r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295134/original/file-20191001-173387-ftk49r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295134/original/file-20191001-173387-ftk49r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/295134/original/file-20191001-173387-ftk49r.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A sensory room filled with rainbow colours and spiderwebs for texture.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Kathryn Ringland</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Just as important for many players is unleashing their imaginations. </p>
<p>In Autcraft I saw buildings that looked like giant pink ponies, statues of people the size of buildings, Doctor Who’s TARDIS, and everything in between. Community members would sometimes work alone, but also worked together, forming teams to accomplish building goals. </p>
<p>I interviewed autistic youth who would take on leadership positions to lead their friends to finish large castles and create whole villages together. For children who have difficulty communicating, making friends, and learning in a classroom environment, this is a very big deal.</p>
<h2>The shape of things to come?</h2>
<p>Minecraft is much like a playground in the physical world. This allows for a deeper engagement for the player, and deeper learning as well. </p>
<p>This is especially true for the autistic youth of Autcraft, who use the accessible interface of Minecraft to help support their social play - without some of the barriers that can make offline play difficult for them. </p>
<p>As physical and virtual spaces blend together, filtered ways of socialising and interacting will become a norm for everyone. We can expect the already tenuous distinction between “virtual” and “real” life to dissolve further - and worlds like Autcraft will simply be a part of life.</p>
<p><em>Dr Kate Ringland is speaking at the <a href="https://www.acmi.net.au/events/education-games-summit-2019/">2019 Education in Games Summit</a> in Melbourne on Monday 14 October, hosted by ACMI as part of Melbourne International Games Week.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/124492/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kathryn Ringland receives funding from the USA National Institute of Mental Health (T32MH115882) and National Science Foundation. This work was supported, in part, by the ARCS Foundation and Robert and Barbara Kleist. </span></em></p>The Autcraft community offers a controlled and filtered environment for autistic children to play and socialiseKathryn Ringland, Postdoctoral Fellow, Northwestern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1197322019-08-01T12:40:55Z2019-08-01T12:40:55ZGrudges come naturally to kids – gratitude must be taught<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286490/original/file-20190731-186814-a2phye.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1120%2C300%2C4355%2C3126&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Kids have no problem remembering who plays fair.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/boy-serious-offended-concept-childrens-emotions-1198736056">Natalia Lebedinskaia/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Have you heard this tale? In ancient times, an escaped slave hid in a cave only to encounter a wounded lion. Although afraid, the man helps the lion, removing a thorn from its paw. The lion is forever grateful, shares his food with the man and, eventually, saves his life.</p>
<p>If this millennia-old fable sounds familiar, you may have encountered it as a child. Variations of “<a href="https://www.bartleby.com/17/1/23.html">Androcles and the Lion</a>” appear in Aesop’s Fables and Roman folklore, and the story persists in <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780140502770">children’s books today</a>.</p>
<p>Stories like these capitalize on a lesson that most people consider to be deeply natural and intuitive: “You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours.” Given the relevance of this proverb in daily life, like many psychologists before <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Rrq6vekAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">us</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=zu9eT-YAAAAJ&hl=en">we</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Tt4hKsQAAAAJ&hl=en">assumed</a> that this principle would be at play in the behavior even of young children.</p>
<p>However, <a href="https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/vjb6q">recent experiments</a> by our team suggest that reciprocity of this kind is neither natural nor intuitive: Young children showed almost no awareness that they should repay favors to those who helped them in the past.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=428&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286275/original/file-20190730-186819-2y6trw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=538&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The lion remembers Androcles’ kindness and returns the favor down the road.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJean-L%C3%A9on_G%C3%A9r%C3%B4me_-_Androcles.jpg">Jean-Léon Gérôme/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Helping those who help you</h2>
<p>The principle of direct reciprocity – paying back those who have helped you in the past – is so central to everyday life that it’s often imbued with moral status. In many societies, including the U.S., <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0021201">failure to return a favor</a> can be considered a great offense.</p>
<p>Beyond the personal level, researchers have argued that direct reciprocity can explain both the <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2092623">success of communities</a> and the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2013.06.003">evolution of cooperation</a> more generally. We reasoned that if reciprocity is indeed something that evolved as a foundation of the way human beings interact with others, it should come naturally to young children.</p>
<p>To test this hypothesis, we designed a simple computer game for 4- to 8-year-olds. Children interacted with four avatars that we told them were other children playing the game. In one version of task, all of the “other children” received a sticker, leaving the child without any. But then one of the players gave their sticker to the child.</p>
<p>In the next phase of the game, the child received a second sticker which they could give to one of the other players. Surely, the most obvious choice would be to return the favor and give that sticker to their prior benefactor?</p>
<p>In fact, the answer was an unequivocal no. Even when forced to give their new sticker away, and even when interacting with people who were members of their same social group, children at all ages gave randomly to one of the other players. Their behavior showed no evidence of direct reciprocity.</p>
<p>Was there something wrong with our task? Or was it too difficult for young children to keep track of who had done what? It didn’t seem like it – when we asked them, nearly all the kids recalled who had given them a sticker.</p>
<p>We found this same effect several times in other groups of children, again finding no evidence that they respect the principle of “You scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours.”</p>
<p>Does this mean children never show direct reciprocity? Not exactly. In fact, they did, just in the form of grudges rather than gratitude.</p>
<h2>Paying back with a punishment</h2>
<p>Direct reciprocity actually comes in two flavors. In addition to the positive form of returning benefits – showing gratitude – there is a negative form of returning injuries – holding grudges. This negative form is also ensconced in proverbs, such as “An eye for an eye.”</p>
<p>We tested the negative form of direct reciprocity with a different group of children, who played a “stealing” version of the task.</p>
<p>Children started with a sticker which was then stolen by one of the four computer players. Later the other players had stickers and the child had the opportunity to take from one of them. Now children retaliated, often with relish, snatching a sticker from the thief in order to even the score.</p>
<p>Why were children of the same age eager to retaliate but unconcerned with returning a favor? Here too, memory errors or biases could not account for the phenomenon: Children were just as good at remembering the nice person as the mean person, but they only reciprocated in the case of negative behavior.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286491/original/file-20190731-186814-gpw7pn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Who should receive the sticker?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/kid-gluing-sticker-on-applique-750057400">Dmytro Yashchuk/Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An expectation that must be learned</h2>
<p>Young children may not respond to obligation, but researchers know they <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.44.3.875">try to abide by social expectations</a>. We wondered if children were simply unaware of the norm of returning favors. Maybe it just doesn’t occur to them to reciprocate the benefits they received.</p>
<p>So, we asked them. We used the same game as before and children still received a sticker, but this time, we just asked “Whom should you give to?” In this case, kids in the oldest age group we looked at, 7- and 8-year-olds, did systematically pick the person who had given a sticker to them. Younger children chose the potential beneficiary at random; it appeared that they simply didn’t know the rule.</p>
<p>Our results suggested that young children must learn the principle of direct reciprocity in order to apply it.</p>
<p>We ran one last study to test this possibility. One group of children heard a story about two children who returned favors to each other, with this information presented in a prescriptive way: “I remember Tom gave me a sticker yesterday so I should do the same for him today.” A separate group of children heard a story about two children who engaged in positive actions, but not in any kind of reciprocal way.</p>
<p>Both groups of children then played the same game as before. It turned out children in the first group, who heard the reciprocity story, were much more likely to “pay back” the person who gave to them compared to the children who heard the second story about kind deeds. In other words, a simple story about gratitude was sufficient for children to start following the social norm of paying back favors.</p>
<p>So the upshot isn’t so grim after all: grudges may come more naturally than gratitude, but gratitude is readily learned. Perhaps, then, the reason why there are so many fables like “Androcles and the Lion” about reciprocity isn’t because the behavior comes so naturally. Instead, we need the fables precisely because it doesn’t.</p>
<p>[ <em><a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=signupinsight">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter to get insight each day</a></em> ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119732/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nadia Chernyak received funding from the National Science Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peter Blake receives funding from the John Templeton Foundation and the National Science Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yarrow Dunham receives funding from The National Science Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, the U.S. Army Research Laboratory, and the U.K. Ministry of Defence. </span></em></p>Do children understand the lesson that if you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours? Developmental psychologists suggest they’re more likely to punish bad behavior than they are to reward good deeds.Nadia Chernyak, Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science, University of California, IrvinePeter Blake, Associate Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Boston UniversityYarrow Dunham, Assistant Professor of Psychology and Cognitive Science, Yale UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1151052019-04-10T10:47:57Z2019-04-10T10:47:57ZEmpathy is the secret ingredient that makes cooperation – and civilization – possible<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/268466/original/file-20190409-2909-1xhbhyt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=945%2C338%2C2948%2C2154&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">What goes into all for one and one for all?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/united-hands-close-up-black-white-333648788?src=f9ZsPuZmwUx5Z9EDJPp8Qg-1-5">Africa Studio/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Human societies are so prosperous mostly because of how altruistic we are. Unlike other animals, people cooperate even with complete strangers. We share knowledge on Wikipedia, we show up to vote, and we work together to responsibly manage natural resources.</p>
<p>But where do these cooperative skills come from and why don’t our selfish instincts overwhelm them? Using a branch of mathematics called <a href="https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/game-theory-evolutionary-stable-strategies-and-the-25953132">evolutionary game theory</a> to explore this feature of human societies, my collaborators <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=yi-SnYcAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">and I</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.44269">found that empathy</a> – a uniquely human capacity to take another person’s perspective – might be responsible for sustaining such extraordinarily high levels of cooperation in modern societies.</p>
<h2>Social rules of cooperation</h2>
<p>For decades scholars have thought that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.14.3.137">social norms and reputation</a> can explain much altruistic behavior. Humans are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1301210110">far more likely</a> to be kind to individuals they see as “good,” than they are to people of “bad” reputation. If everyone agrees that being altruistic toward other cooperators earns you a good reputation, cooperation will persist.</p>
<p>This universal understanding of whom we see as morally good and worthy of cooperation is a form of <a href="https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/social-norms/">social norm</a> – an invisible rule that guides social behavior and promotes cooperation. A common norm in human societies called “stern judging,” for instance, rewards cooperators who refuse to help bad people, but many other norms are possible.</p>
<p>This idea that you help one person and someone else helps you is called the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/nature04131">theory of indirect reciprocity</a>. However, it’s been built assuming that people always agree on each others’ reputations as they change over time. Moral reputations were presumed to be fully objective and publicly known. Imagine, for instance, an all-seeing institution monitoring people’s behavior and assigning reputations, like China’s <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/01/21/chinese-social-credit-score-utopian-big-data-bliss-or-black-mirror-on-steroids/#1cd4ebb748b8">social credit system</a>, in which people will be rewarded or sanctioned based on “social scores” calculated by the government.</p>
<p>But in most real-life communities, people often disagree about each others’ reputations. A person who appears good to me might seem like a bad individual from my friend’s perspective. My friend’s judgment might be based on a different social norm or a different observation than mine. This is why reputations in real societies are relative – people have different opinions about what is good or bad.</p>
<p>Using biology-inspired evolutionary models, I set out to investigate what happens in a more realistic setting. Can cooperation evolve when there are disagreements about what is considered good or bad? To answer this question, I first worked with mathematical descriptions of large societies, in which people could choose between various types of cooperative and selfish behaviors based on how beneficial they were. Later I used computer models to simulate social interactions in much smaller societies that more closely resemble human communities.</p>
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<p>The results of my modeling work were not encouraging: Overall, moral relativity made societies less altruistic. Cooperation almost vanished under most social norms. This meant that most of what was known about social norms promoting human cooperation may have been false.</p>
<h2>Evolution of empathy</h2>
<p>To find out what was missing from the dominant theory of altruism, I teamed up with <a href="http://mathbio.sas.upenn.edu/">Joshua Plotkin</a>, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=WANIT2oAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">a theoretical biologist</a> at the University of Pennsylvania, and <a href="https://www.alexanderjstewart.org/">Alex Stewart</a> at the University of Houston, both <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Z3-RzE0AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">experts in game theoretical approaches</a> to human behavior. We agreed that my pessimistic findings went against our intuition – most people do care about reputations and about the moral value of others’ actions. </p>
<p>But we also knew that humans have a remarkable ability to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2374373517699267">empathetically include other people’s views</a> when deciding that a certain behavior is morally good or bad. On some occasions, for instance, you might be tempted to judge an uncooperative person harshly, when you really shouldn’t if from their own perspective, cooperation was not the right thing to do.</p>
<p>This is when my colleagues and I decided to modify our models to give individuals the capacity for empathy – that is, the ability to make their moral evaluations from the perspective of another person. We also wanted individuals in our model to be able to learn how to be empathetic, simply by observing and copying personality traits of more successful people.</p>
<p>When we incorporated this type of <a href="https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.44269">empathetic perspective-taking into our equations</a>, cooperation rates skyrocketed; once again we observed altruism winning over selfish behavior. Even initially uncooperative societies in which everyone judged each other based mostly on their own selfish perspectives, eventually discovered empathy – it became socially contagious and spread throughout the population. Empathy made our model societies altruistic again.</p>
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<p>Moral psychologists have long suggested that <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wild-connections/201709/cultivating-empathy">empathy can act as social glue</a>, increasing cohesiveness and cooperation of human societies. Empathetic perspective-taking <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-understand-far-more-about-other-minds-than-long-believed-72711">starts developing in infancy</a>, and at least some <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.740">aspects of empathy are learned</a> from parents and other members of the child’s social network. But how humans evolved empathy in the first place remained a mystery.</p>
<p>It is incredibly difficult to build rigorous theories about concepts of moral psychology as complex as empathy or trust. Our study offers a new way of thinking about empathy, by incorporating it into the well-studied framework of evolutionary game theory. Other moral emotions like guilt and shame can potentially be studied in the same way.</p>
<p>I hope that the link between empathy and human cooperation we discovered can soon be tested experimentally. Perspective-taking skills are most important in communities where many different backgrounds, cultures and norms intersect; this is where different individuals will have diverging views on what actions are morally good or bad. If the effect of empathy is as strong as our theory suggests, there could be ways to use our findings to promote large-scale cooperation in the long term – for instance, by designing nudges, interventions and policies that promote development of perspective-taking skills or at least encourage considering the views of those who are different.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/115105/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Arunas L. Radzvilavicius receives funding from David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the U.S.
Army Research Office. </span></em></p>Where do the cooperative skills that hold together human societies come from and why don’t our selfish instincts overwhelm them? Evolutionary game theory suggests that empathy is a crucial contributor.Arunas L. Radzvilavicius, Postdoctoral Researcher of Evolutionary Biology, University of PennsylvaniaLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1117672019-02-18T14:35:29Z2019-02-18T14:35:29ZMaking cities more walkable by understanding how other people influence our journeys<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259556/original/file-20190218-56229-xa1jhh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=403%2C468%2C4431%2C2712&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">On foot.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/silhouettes-walking-people-multiple-exposure-blurred-571977865?src=xBlBMRjeh7J3MG_OZc73oA-1-2">Shutterstock.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Cities around the world <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/sep/12/walkable-city-worlds-most-new-york-melbourne-fes-el-bali">are changing</a> to become more “walkable”. As more and more people move to cities, the benefits of encouraging people to walk are clear. Aside from making the urban environment more pleasant, safer and less polluted, improving a city’s walkability can also ease traffic congestion and improve public health. </p>
<p>This is a particular challenge in cities built for cars, so there’s been <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/cjud20/13/1?nav=tocList">lots of research</a> to find out what sort of features make a city more attractive to pedestrians, and encourage them to walk further and more often: whether it’s the size of urban blocks, the quality of the pavement, the presence of trees or street furniture or initiatives such as car-free zones. </p>
<p>But while planners and researchers strive to work out what makes urban spaces enticing to pedestrians, they often overlook the fact that people’s decisions about where to walk, and when, are not only determined by the physical qualities of the environment. In fact, new <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00142/full">research suggests</a> that these choices are strongly influenced by other people. </p>
<h2>Under the influence</h2>
<p>There’s already lots of evidence that people are highly influenced by their friendship groups. As early as the 1970s, an American sociologist called Mark Granovetter <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2776392">suggested that</a> the spread of rumours, adoption of new tech and job searches were all influenced by a person’s social network – especially their “weak ties” with acquaintances.</p>
<p>At the same time, two other American sociologists, <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/225259">Paul Burstein</a> and <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2094133">Carl Sheingold</a>, found that political voting patterns were also significantly influenced by a person’s social network. Even more recently, <a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMsa066082">researchers discovered</a> that you are more likely to be obese if your social network contains obese friends.</p>
<p>There’s clear evidence that there’s a social dimension to walking, too. For example, a child is <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01944360902988794">more likely to walk to school</a> if they have a sibling or friend to walk with. Gender, class and the distance to work <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1353829206000761">all affect</a> whether or not a person chooses to walk. And people <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272494404000064">prefer to go with friends</a> when walking for leisure in the city. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259534/original/file-20190218-56240-1yjwyzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259534/original/file-20190218-56240-1yjwyzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259534/original/file-20190218-56240-1yjwyzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259534/original/file-20190218-56240-1yjwyzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259534/original/file-20190218-56240-1yjwyzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259534/original/file-20190218-56240-1yjwyzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259534/original/file-20190218-56240-1yjwyzm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Walk and talk.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-young-bearded-blonde-black-hair-532026466?src=xBlBMRjeh7J3MG_OZc73oA-1-57">Shutterstock.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>More than that, in <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00142/full">new research</a> I conducted with colleagues at ETH Zurich and the University of California, we looked at how the routes people choose to take when walking can be influenced by others; we call this phenomenon “social wayfinding”.</p>
<h2>Social wayfinding</h2>
<p>Perhaps the clearest example of social wayfinding is when two or more people are walking together, trying to reach a destination. They might plan where to go, identify landmarks along the way, and discuss their choice of route together. </p>
<p>This activity becomes less social when one person leads the way, and others follow along; whether that’s a guide leading a tour, or a person leading a friend to their house. Both of these are examples of “strong” social wayfinding, because decisions about where to go are directly and intentionally influenced by other people. </p>
<p>Social wayfinding also happens when pedestrians take hints from others, which influences their choice of route. When a walker believes that other travellers might share the same destination – for example, when they follow fellow supporters from the train station to the football stadium for a match – he or she may simply go with the flow. </p>
<p>Similarly, the movement of people through a gap between two buildings might indicate a shortcut you wouldn’t otherwise have noticed. This is what we call “weak” social wayfinding.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259536/original/file-20190218-56226-1vjnn8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259536/original/file-20190218-56226-1vjnn8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259536/original/file-20190218-56226-1vjnn8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259536/original/file-20190218-56226-1vjnn8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259536/original/file-20190218-56226-1vjnn8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259536/original/file-20190218-56226-1vjnn8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/259536/original/file-20190218-56226-1vjnn8n.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Making tracks.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/girl-playing-labrador-retriever-dog-park-451251052?src=IX6SQbU5FhNanvGFSo6kBQ-1-74">Shutterstock.</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Timing also plays a role. For example, directions or guidance can be given before a journey, or while walking (over the phone, for example). It can even be that the past movements of others leave “social trails”, which can indirectly inform pedestrians where to go – like the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/oct/05/desire-paths-the-illicit-trails-that-defy-the-urban-planners">worn tracks across grass</a>, which might hint at a shortcut through a park. </p>
<h2>The social city</h2>
<p>Of course, people navigate using many different types of social wayfinding during the course of their walk. Apps such as Google Maps or Citymapper can also be used in a social way: although they’re typically designed with a single navigator in mind, in reality it’s not unusual for two or more people to be using a device at the same time, passing it around, discussing the instructions and jointly making decisions about where to go. </p>
<p>To create walkable cities, of course it’s important for planners and city leaders to understand what sort of physical features encourage people to walk more. But acknowledging how social interactions influence people’s choices about when and where to walk would give leaders a much more realistic understanding of people’s behaviour – and put them in a better position to encourage walking as a means of getting around. </p>
<p>Understanding how other people influence wayfinding could also clear the way for many exciting technological innovations, which could make cities easier to navigate. Social trails could be mapped by digital apps or physical markers, and signage could be dynamic, possibly even functioning like an <a href="http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.130.8327&rep=rep1&type=pdf">online recommendation system</a> – for example, by flagging quieter routes during busy periods of the day. Wayfinding aids such as maps, signage and apps can be tested on groups, as well as individuals, to make them more useful in both settings. </p>
<p>By being more responsive to the social influences, which affect where people choose to walk, urban planners and leaders could gain valuable information about the way people use the city, and make smarter decisions about what to build, and where.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111767/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Dalton does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Other people influence how we vote, what jobs we apply for, which gadgets we buy – so of course they influence how we get around the city.Ruth Dalton, Professor of Building Usability and Visualisation, Northumbria University, NewcastleLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1074462018-12-17T19:04:34Z2018-12-17T19:04:34ZConform to the social norm: why people follow what other people do<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/246992/original/file-20181123-149332-rgzoch.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Some people just follow the social norm, whether it's right or not.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/LENAIKA</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Why do people tend to do what others do, prefer what others prefer, and choose what others choose?</p>
<p>Our study, published today in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-018-0489-y">Nature Human Behaviour</a>, shows that people tend to copy other people’s choices, even when they know that those people did not make their choices freely, and when the decision does not reflect their own actual preferences. </p>
<p>It is well established that people tend to conform to behaviours that are common among other people. These are known as <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/social-norms-4849">social norms</a>.</p>
<p>Yet our finding that people conform to other’s choices that they know are completely arbitrary cannot be explained by most theories of this social norm effect. As such, it sheds new light on why people conform to social norms.</p>
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<h2>Would you do as others do?</h2>
<p>Imagine you have witnessed a man rob a bank but then he gives the stolen money to an orphanage. Do you call the police or leave the robber be, so the orphanage can keep the money?</p>
<p>We posed this moral dilemma to 150 participants recruited online in our first experiment. Before they made their choice, we also presented information about how similar participants in a previous experiment had imagined acting during this dilemma.</p>
<p>Half of our participants were told that most other people had imagined reporting the robber. The remaining half were told that most other people had imagined not calling the police.</p>
<p>Crucially, however, we made it clear to our participants that these norms did not reflect people’s preferences. Instead, the norm was said to have occurred due to some faulty code in the experiment that randomly allocated the previous participants to imagining reporting or not reporting the robber.</p>
<p>This made it clear that the norms were arbitrary and did not actually reflect anybody’s preferred choice.</p>
<h2>Whom did they follow?</h2>
<p>We found that participants followed the social norms of the previous people, even though they knew they were entirely arbitrary and did not reflect anyone’s actual choices. </p>
<p>Simply telling people that many other people had been randomly allocated to imagine reporting the robber increased their tendency to favour reporting the robber.</p>
<p>A series of subsequent experiments, involving 631 new participants recruited online, showed that this result was robust. It held over different participants and different moral dilemmas. It was not caused by our participants not understanding that the norm was entirely arbitrary.</p>
<p>Why would people behave in such a seemingly irrational manner? Our participants knew that the norms were arbitrary, so why would they conform to them?</p>
<h2>Is it the right thing to do?</h2>
<p>One <a href="http://web.missouri.edu/%7Esegerti/capstone/CialdiniNormativeConduct.pdf">common explanation</a> for norm conformity is that, if everyone else is choosing to do one thing, it is probably a good thing to do. </p>
<p>The other <a href="https://terpconnect.umd.edu/%7Epswistak/GVPT%20399A/articles/ajs.pdf">common explanation</a> is that failing to follow a norm may elicit negative social sanctions, and so we conform to norms in an effort to avoid these negative responses.</p>
<p>Neither of these can explain our finding that people conform to arbitrary norms. Such norms offer no useful information about the value of different options or potential social sanctions.</p>
<p>Instead, our results support an alternative theory, termed self-categorisation theory. The basic idea is that people conform to the norms of certain social groups whenever they have a personal desire to feel like they belong to that group.</p>
<p>Importantly, for self-categorisation theory it does not matter whether a norm reflects people’s preference, as long as the behaviour is simply associated with the group. Thus, our results suggest that self-categorisation may play a role in norm adherence.</p>
<h2>The cascade effect</h2>
<p>But are we ever really presented with arbitrary norms that offer no rational reason for us to conform to them? If you see a packed restaurant next to an empty one, the packed restaurant must be better, right?</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249904/original/file-20181211-76962-v9wviu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249904/original/file-20181211-76962-v9wviu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/249904/original/file-20181211-76962-v9wviu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249904/original/file-20181211-76962-v9wviu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249904/original/file-20181211-76962-v9wviu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249904/original/file-20181211-76962-v9wviu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249904/original/file-20181211-76962-v9wviu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/249904/original/file-20181211-76962-v9wviu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s a busy restaurant so it must be good, right?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock/EmmepiPhoto</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Well, if everyone before you followed the same thought process, it is perfectly possible that an initial arbitrary decision by some early restaurant-goers cascaded into one restaurant being popular and the other remaining empty.</p>
<p>Termed information cascade, this phenomenon emphasises how norms can snowball from potentially irrelevant starting conditions whenever we are influenced by people’s earlier decisions.</p>
<p>Defaults may also lead to social norms that do not reflect people’s preferences but instead are driven by our tendency towards inaction.</p>
<p>For example, registered <a href="https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/health-problems/why-newscomau-is-supporting-organ-donation-and-donatelife-campaign/news-story/01973eb48e23794fff6b95b4ac8871f9">organ donors remain a minority</a> in Australia, despite most Australians <a href="https://donatelife.gov.au/about-donation/get-facts/facts-and-statistics">supporting organ donation</a>. This is frequently attributed to our use of an opt-in registration system.</p>
<p>In fact, defaults may lead to norms occurring for reasons that run counter to the decision-maker’s interests, such as a company choosing the cheapest healthcare plan as a default. Our results suggest that people will still tend to follow such norms.</p>
<h2>Conform to good behaviour</h2>
<p>Increasingly, social norms are being used to encourage pro-social behaviour.</p>
<p>They have been successfully used to encourage <a href="https://www.scu.edu/media/college-of-arts-and-sciences/psychology/documents/Burger-et-al-2010-1.pdf">healthy eating</a>, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0137306">increase attendance at doctor appointments</a>, <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0167487005000115">reduce tax evasion</a>, <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jcr/article/35/3/472/1856257">increase towel reuse at hotels</a>, <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01917.x">decrease long-term energy use</a>, and <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/267100/Applying_Behavioural_Insights_to_Organ_Donation.pdf">increase organ donor registrations</a>.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-subcultures-are-collateral-damage-in-tumblrs-ban-on-adult-content-108169">Sexual subcultures are collateral damage in Tumblr’s ban on adult content</a>
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<p>The better we can understand why people conform to social norms, the able we will be to design behavioural change interventions to address the problems facing our society. </p>
<p>The fact that the social norm effect works even for arbitrary norms opens up new and exciting avenues to facilitate behavioural change that were not previously possible.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/107446/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Just because somebody else does something doesn’t mean you have to follow. Or does it?Campbell Pryor, PhD Student in Psychology, The University of MelbournePiers Howe, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1011532018-08-09T04:56:06Z2018-08-09T04:56:06ZOther people are having way, way less sex than you think they are<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/231132/original/file-20180808-191041-evwqcr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Research shows we think young people have a lot more sex than they do in reality – and men have a particularly skewed view of the sex lives of young women.</p>
<p>As part of Ipsos’ long-running <a href="http://www.perils.ipsos.com">studies on misperceptions</a>, to be released in a new book, <a href="https://www.amazon.co.uk/Perils-Perception-Wrong-Nearly-Everything-ebook/dp/B0792KQZFZ">The Perils of Perception</a>, we asked people in Britain and the US to guess how often people aged 18-29 in their country had sex in the past four weeks.</p>
<p>The average guess about young men in both countries is that they had sex fourteen times in the last month, when the actual number is just <a href="http://www.natsal.ac.uk/home.aspx">five in Britain</a> and <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/nhanes/index.htm">four in the US</a>, according to detailed surveys of sexual behaviour.</p>
<p>Our guess would mean that, on average, young men are having sex every other day – around 180 times a year – compared with the more mundane reality of around 50 times. But that’s not the most remarkable error in our guessing. Men are even more wildly wrong when they guess about young women’s sex lives, in both the US and Britain.</p>
<p>Men think British and American young women are having an incredible amount of sex – 22 times a month in Britain, and 23 times a month in the US. These guesses would be the equivalent of the average young woman having sex every weekday, plus two or three times on one special day each month. In reality, it’s around five times.</p>
<h2>Why we get it so wrong</h2>
<p>As with so many of our misperceptions, the explanations for this will be both how we think and what we’re told.</p>
<p>The survival of our species literally depends on sex. Yet it is a hotbed of misperceptions, because unlike many other core human behaviours, where we can get a better idea of social norms from observation, sex mostly happens behind firmly closed doors (and the sex that is available for general viewing is not a fully accurate representation of the norm).</p>
<p>Because we don’t have access to very much real-life comparative information, we turn to other “authoritative” sources: playground or locker room chat, dubious surveys, salacious media coverage and porn. These provide extreme examples and dodgy anecdotes that distort our views of reality.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230797/original/file-20180806-191025-13db4ah.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230797/original/file-20180806-191025-13db4ah.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230797/original/file-20180806-191025-13db4ah.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230797/original/file-20180806-191025-13db4ah.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230797/original/file-20180806-191025-13db4ah.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230797/original/file-20180806-191025-13db4ah.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230797/original/file-20180806-191025-13db4ah.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Frequency of sex among young people, perception and reality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ipsos MORI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the same survey, we asked people in three countries to guess how many sexual partners people in their country have had by the time they get to 45-54 years of age. On this, people are actually very accurate at guessing the average number of partners reported by men.</p>
<p>The actual figure in Australia and Britain is an average of 17 partners by the time men reach 45–54. In the US, it’s 19. The average guesses are almost spot-on.</p>
<p>But it gets much more interesting when we compare men and women. First, the standout pattern is with the actual data. The number of partners claimed by women in surveys of sexual behaviour is much, much lower than the number claimed by men.</p>
<p>In fact, women claim to have had almost half the number of sexual partners as men. This is one of the great conundrums of sexual behaviour measurement: it’s seen again and again in high quality sex surveys, but it’s a statistical impossibility.</p>
<p>Given that both men and women are reporting pairings, and they make up roughly equal proportions of the (heterosexual) population, the numbers should roughly match.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230798/original/file-20180806-191035-1nh2qqh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230798/original/file-20180806-191035-1nh2qqh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230798/original/file-20180806-191035-1nh2qqh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230798/original/file-20180806-191035-1nh2qqh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230798/original/file-20180806-191035-1nh2qqh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230798/original/file-20180806-191035-1nh2qqh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230798/original/file-20180806-191035-1nh2qqh.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Number of lifetime sexual partners, perception and reality.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ipsos MORI</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are a number of <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/sex-by-numbers-what-statistics-can-tell-us-about-sexual-behaviour-by-david-spiegelhalter-fjd0r7cc5s7">suggested explanations</a> for this – everything from men’s use of prostitutes to how the different genders interpret the question (for example, if women discount some sexual practices that men count).</p>
<p>But it seems most likely to be a mix of men’s tendency to be more <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180726161251.htm">rough and ready</a> when they add up, combined with men’s conscious or unconscious bumping up of their figure, and women’s tendency to deflate theirs.</p>
<p>There is evidence of the latter effect from a <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn3936-fake-lie-detector-reveals-womens-sex-lies/">US study</a> among students which split the participants into three groups before asking them about their sexual behaviour. One group of women was left alone to fill out the questionnaire as normal. Another was led to believe that their answers could be seen by someone supervising the experiment. And the third was attached to a fake lie detector machine.</p>
<p>The group of women who thought their answers may be seen claimed an average of 2.6 sexual partners, the standard anonymous questionnaire group said 3.4 on average, while those attached to the useless beeping machine said 4.4 – which was in line with the men in the study.</p>
<h2>Check your figures, American men</h2>
<p>There is one final worrying twist in the US data. Men and women guess very differently for women in the US. American men think that American women have had 27 partners on average, but American women guess only 13, which is much closer to the figure women claim for themselves of 12.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230788/original/file-20180806-191013-1wz0b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/230788/original/file-20180806-191013-1wz0b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230788/original/file-20180806-191013-1wz0b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230788/original/file-20180806-191013-1wz0b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230788/original/file-20180806-191013-1wz0b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230788/original/file-20180806-191013-1wz0b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/230788/original/file-20180806-191013-1wz0b4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Me? I’ve actually got quite a lot of life admin to be getting on with.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">freestocks org unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This ludicrously high average guess among men for US women is largely due to a small number of US men who think that US women have an incredible number of partners. In fact, there were around 20 US men in our sample of 1,000 that went for numbers of 50 or (sometimes way) above, and that skews the data.</p>
<p>Our misperceptions reveal a lot about how we see the world. They are a brilliant clue to our deep-seated biases, as our guesses at what is “normal” are more automatic and unguarded. In this study, these guesses point to some frighteningly wrong views of young people and women, particularly among a small section of men. </p>
<p>As with other misperceptions, the answer is not just to bombard people with more facts to correct these views, but to also deal with the underlying causes – that what we’re told and how we think leads many of us to get so much so wrong.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/101153/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The Perils of Perception – Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything is published by Atlantic Books on September 6, 2018.</span></em></p>We all think men are at it way more than they are. But estimates of how much nooky young women are getting are basically ludicrous.Bobby Duffy, Visiting Senior Research Fellow, King's College LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.