Shaping Social Norms: How Experience Affects Moral Judgments

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).