Introduction

There are many social customs whose disobedience under the right circumstances is of pecuniary advantage to the person who disobeys. Furthermore, if the sin of not following a social custom is considered less serious if disobedience is more common, in all likelihood the values responsible for the observance of a social custom are less likely to be passed on from one generation to the next the greater is the disobedience. It might be expected, in consequence, that even in a state of the world in which the beliefs underlying a social custom are universally accepted, some persons with unusual tastes will be attracted by the pecuniary gain from breaking it; this breaking of the social custom will, at least to some extent, undermine the beliefs responsible for its observance; and this undermining of belief will in turn provoke more disobedience, etc. – in such a sequence of increasing disobedience and erosion of belief that in the long run the social custom disappears.