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29 - Social Contagion and Goal Framing: The Sustainability of Rule Compliance

from Part IV - Legitimacy and Social Norms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2021

By
Siegwart Lindenberg ,
Frédérique Six  and
Kees Keizer
Edited by
Benjamin van Rooij  and
D. Daniel Sokol
Benjamin van Rooij
Affiliation:
School of Law, University of Amsterdam
D. Daniel Sokol
Affiliation:
University of Florida
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Summary

Abstract: Rule compliance (in organizations or society at large) may be strengthened or weakened by social contagion processes. Observing others’ (non-)compliance with rules influences one’s own likelihood of compliance. Extant literature shows two social contagion theories that can explain this phenomenon. First, the theory of normative conduct (TNC) (Cialdini et al. 1990) suggests that people interpret the observed behaviour of others (i.e. the descriptive norm) as adaptive for that context, resulting in rational imitation. Second, Goal Framing Theory (GFT) (Lindenberg and Steg 2007) suggests that we should look not just at the contagion of concrete behaviour but at the process that governs the contagion of the very goal to comply with norms and legitimate rules. This is particularly important because it predicts that observed (non-)compliance regarding one rule also affects (non-)compliance with other rules (‘cross-norm effects’). Because the goal to comply tends to decay, it needs continuous support from the observation of other people’s respect for norms and legitimate rules. Compliance and non-compliance are thus both self-reinforcing mechanisms. This has clear implications for policy which are discussed in this chapter, most notably the importance of a focus on legitimizing rules, so that they are interpreted as norms by the general public.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Handbook of Compliance , pp. 422 - 437
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

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