RT Journal Article
T1 Evidence from a long-term experiment that collective risks change social norms and promote cooperation
A1 Szekely, Aron
A1 Lipari, Francesca
A1 Antonioni, Alberto
A1 Paolucci, Mario
A1 Sánchez, Angel
A1 Tummolini, Luca
A1 Andrighetto, Giulia
AB 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.
PB Springer Nature
YR 2021
FD 2021-09-15
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/110183
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/110183
LA eng
NO Szekely, A., Lipari, F., Antonioni, A. et al. Evidence from a long-term experiment that collective risks change social norms and promote cooperation. Nat Commun 12, 5452 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25734-w.
NO This research was funded by the Knut and Wallenberg Grant “How do human norms form and change?” 2016.0167 awarded to G.A.; A. Sánchez acknowledges partial support by PGC2018-098186-B-I00 (BASIC, FEDER/MICINN- AEI), PRACTICO-CM, (Comunidad de Madrid), and CAVTIONS-CM-UC3M (Comunidad de Madrid/Universidad Carlos III de Madrid); M.P. acknowledges funding by the FLAG-ERA JCT 2016 FuturICT2.0 project; A.A. acknowledges partial support from the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of Spain Grant No. FJCI-2016-28276; F.L. acknowledges partial support from the Comunitad de Madrid Talento Scholarship Grant No. 2018-T2/SOC-11335. We thank Antonello Maruotti and Guillaume Kon Kam King for scientific discussions and valuable feedback.
DS Docta Complutense
RD 17 abr 2025