IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/cesptp/halshs-05115226.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Shaping Social Norms: How Experience Affects Moral Judgments

Author

Listed:
  • Roberto Galbiati

    (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Emeric Henry

    (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

  • Nicolas Jacquemet

    (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)

Abstract

What actions other people judge appropriate drives pro-social behavior. We show that such judgments depend on whether the observers previously faced the situation they judge (active observers) or not (passive observers). In an online giving experiment, active observers make more polarized judgments than passive ones -those who acted pro-socially judge selfish behavior more harshly and praise pro-social actions more. Moreover, active observers persistently avoid payoff-relevant information, both as dictators, likely to maintain their self-image, and then as observers. Our results imply a new link between descriptive (what most people do) and injunctive norms (what groups deem appropriate).

Suggested Citation

  • Roberto Galbiati & Emeric Henry & Nicolas Jacquemet, 2025. "Shaping Social Norms: How Experience Affects Moral Judgments," Université Paris1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Post-Print and Working Papers) halshs-05115226, HAL.
  • Handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-05115226
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-05115226v1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-05115226v1/document
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-05115226. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.