Discussion: Self-Enforcing Norms
I found a fascinating study that was published in the American Journal of Sociology and can be read on their website.
The Emperor's Dilemma: A Computational Model of Self-Enforcing Norms by Damon Centola, Robb Willer, and Michael Macy of Cornell University.
Pluralistic ignorance has been documented not only among groups that indulge but also among those that abstain. For example, in Schank's (1932) classic investigation, the members of a religious community were observed publicly endorsing norms against gambling, smoking, and drinking that they violated in private. More recently, Kitts (2003) found that students in five vegetarian housing cooperatives overestimated public support for dietary norms that were publicly enforced but privately violated. Kitts tested relational explanations ("selective exposure" and "selective disclosure") against social psychological theories of cognitive bias. Consistent with theories of pluralistic ignorance, he found greater support for the relational effects of differential access to information about others' compliance.
Other examples are more disturbing. O'Gorman found that American whites grossly exaggerated other whites' support for segregation in the late 1960s (1975; O'Gorman and Garry 1976). A similar pattern can be found in other repressive regimes. In his book Private Truths and Public Lies, Timur Kuran (1995b) points to widespread but illusory support for the communist regime in the former Soviet Union, based in part on fear of denunciation for revealing private opposition to neighbors whose apparent enthusiasm for the regime was in fact equally a charade, and for the same reason.
A similar dynamic is evident in witch hunts. As noted by Erikson (1966), witch hunts are caused not by an outbreak of deviance, but by an outbreak of enforcement. Witches are created by anxious neighbors seeking to affirm their status in the community by accusing others of deviance, thereby perpetuating the fear that fuels the need for affirmation. Those accused can then save themselves only by revealing the names of yet other neighbors. Perhaps no one in this population actually believes in the existence of witches. Yet a terrified public turns out to cheer at the executions, in public expiations of a collective anxiety that is of their own making. This self-reinforcing dynamic indeed casts a spell on the community as powerful as that of any witch.
This is an interesting look at the popular enforcement of unpopular norms. It has far-reaching implications, both in and out of the fannish experience.
What are your thoughts on this? Have you seen examples of these behaviors in fandom? Do you feel that this is applicable to your experiences in fandom?
What happens when the proverbial emperor is revealed? Can you think of situations where this has happened in fandom? What was the outcome? What about outside of fandom?
The Emperor's Dilemma: A Computational Model of Self-Enforcing Norms by Damon Centola, Robb Willer, and Michael Macy of Cornell University.
Pluralistic ignorance has been documented not only among groups that indulge but also among those that abstain. For example, in Schank's (1932) classic investigation, the members of a religious community were observed publicly endorsing norms against gambling, smoking, and drinking that they violated in private. More recently, Kitts (2003) found that students in five vegetarian housing cooperatives overestimated public support for dietary norms that were publicly enforced but privately violated. Kitts tested relational explanations ("selective exposure" and "selective disclosure") against social psychological theories of cognitive bias. Consistent with theories of pluralistic ignorance, he found greater support for the relational effects of differential access to information about others' compliance.
Other examples are more disturbing. O'Gorman found that American whites grossly exaggerated other whites' support for segregation in the late 1960s (1975; O'Gorman and Garry 1976). A similar pattern can be found in other repressive regimes. In his book Private Truths and Public Lies, Timur Kuran (1995b) points to widespread but illusory support for the communist regime in the former Soviet Union, based in part on fear of denunciation for revealing private opposition to neighbors whose apparent enthusiasm for the regime was in fact equally a charade, and for the same reason.
A similar dynamic is evident in witch hunts. As noted by Erikson (1966), witch hunts are caused not by an outbreak of deviance, but by an outbreak of enforcement. Witches are created by anxious neighbors seeking to affirm their status in the community by accusing others of deviance, thereby perpetuating the fear that fuels the need for affirmation. Those accused can then save themselves only by revealing the names of yet other neighbors. Perhaps no one in this population actually believes in the existence of witches. Yet a terrified public turns out to cheer at the executions, in public expiations of a collective anxiety that is of their own making. This self-reinforcing dynamic indeed casts a spell on the community as powerful as that of any witch.
This is an interesting look at the popular enforcement of unpopular norms. It has far-reaching implications, both in and out of the fannish experience.
What are your thoughts on this? Have you seen examples of these behaviors in fandom? Do you feel that this is applicable to your experiences in fandom?
What happens when the proverbial emperor is revealed? Can you think of situations where this has happened in fandom? What was the outcome? What about outside of fandom?