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Evidence from a long-term experiment that collective risks change social norms and promote cooperation

Author

Listed:
  • Aron Szekely

    (Italian National Research Council
    Institute for Futures Studies
    Collegio Carlo Alberto)

  • Francesca Lipari

    (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

  • Alberto Antonioni

    (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

  • Mario Paolucci

    (Italian National Research Council
    Italian, National Research Council)

  • Angel Sánchez

    (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
    Universidad de Zaragoza
    Unidad Mixta Interdisciplinar de Comportamiento y Complejidad Social (UMICCS), UC3M-UV-UZ
    Universidad Carlos III de Madrid)

  • Luca Tummolini

    (Italian National Research Council
    Institute for Futures Studies)

  • Giulia Andrighetto

    (Italian National Research Council
    Institute for Futures Studies
    Malardalens University)

Abstract

Social norms can help solve pressing societal challenges, from mitigating climate change to reducing the spread of infectious diseases. Despite their relevance, how norms shape cooperation among strangers remains insufficiently understood. Influential theories also suggest that the level of threat faced by different societies plays a key role in the strength of the norms that cultures evolve. Still little causal evidence has been collected. Here we deal with this dual challenge using a 30-day collective-risk social dilemma experiment to measure norm change in a controlled setting. We ask whether a looming risk of collective loss increases the strength of cooperative social norms that may avert it. We find that social norms predict cooperation, causally affect behavior, and that higher risk leads to stronger social norms that are more resistant to erosion when the risk changes. Taken together, our results demonstrate the causal effect of social norms in promoting cooperation and their role in making behavior resilient in the face of exogenous change.

Suggested Citation

  • Aron Szekely & Francesca Lipari & Alberto Antonioni & Mario Paolucci & Angel Sánchez & Luca Tummolini & Giulia Andrighetto, 2021. "Evidence from a long-term experiment that collective risks change social norms and promote cooperation," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 12(1), pages 1-7, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:12:y:2021:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-021-25734-w
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25734-w
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    Cited by:

    1. Lane, Tom & Miller, Luis & Rodriguez, Isabel, 2024. "The normative permissiveness of political partyism," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Antonio Cabrales & Manu García & David Ramos Muñoz & Angel Sánchez, 2022. "The Interactions of Social Norms about Climate Change: Science, Institutions and Economics," CESifo Working Paper Series 9905, CESifo.
    3. Qian, Jun & Zhang, Tongda & Zhang, Yingfeng & Chai, Yueting & Sun, Xiao & Wang, Zhen, 2023. "The construction of peer punishment preference: how central power shapes prosocial and antisocial punishment behaviors," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 442(C).
    4. Eugen Dimant & Michele Gelfand & Anna Hochleitner & Silvia Sonderegger, 2022. "Strategic Behavior with Tight, Loose and Polarized Norms," ECONtribute Discussion Papers Series 198, University of Bonn and University of Cologne, Germany.
    5. Gao, Shiping & Li, Nan, 2023. "Preference reversal and the evolution of cooperation," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 438(C).
    6. Manfred Milinski & Jochem Marotzke, 2022. "Economic experiments support Ostrom’s polycentric approach to mitigating climate change," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-9, December.
    7. Li, Wen-Jing & Chen, Zhi & Jin, Ke-Zhong & Wang, Jun & Yuan, Lin & Gu, Changgui & Jiang, Luo-Luo & Perc, Matjaž, 2022. "Options for mobility and network reciprocity to jointly yield robust cooperation in social dilemmas," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 435(C).
    8. Giulia Andrighetto & Aron Szekely & Andrea Guido & Michele Gelfand & Jered Abernathy & Gizem Arikan & Zeynep Aycan & Shweta Bankar & Davide Barrera & Dana Basnight-Brown & Anabel Belaus & Elizaveta Be, 2024. "Changes in social norms during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic across 43 countries," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.
    9. Yi, Wenfeng & Wu, Wenhan & Li, Jinghai & Wang, Xiaolu & Zheng, Xiaoping, 2022. "An extended queueing model based on vision and morality for crowd evacuation," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 604(C).
    10. Gruener, Sven, 2022. "The economic psychology of climate change: An experimental study on risk preferences and cooperation," OSF Preprints jq57n, Center for Open Science.
    11. Jun Qian & Tongda Zhang & Xiao Sun & Yueting Chai, 2023. "The coordination of collective and individual solutions in risk-resistant scenarios," The European Physical Journal B: Condensed Matter and Complex Systems, Springer;EDP Sciences, vol. 96(2), pages 1-15, February.
    12. Bellani, Luna & Biswas, Kumar & Fehrler, Sebastian & Marx, Paul & Sabarwal, Shwetlena & Al-Zayed Josh, Syed Rashed, 2023. "Social Norms and Female Labor Force Participation in Bangladesh: The Role of Social Expectations and Reference Networks," IZA Discussion Papers 16006, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).

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