Smerdon, D., Offerman, T. and Gneezy, U. (2020). ‘Everybody’s doing it’: on the persistence of bad social norms Experimental Economics, 23(2):392--420.
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Affiliated author
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Publication year2020
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JournalExperimental Economics
We investigate how information about the preferences of others affects the persistence of {\textquoteleft}bad{\textquoteright} social norms. One view is that bad norms thrive even when people are informed of the preferences of others, since the bad norm is an equilibrium of a coordination game. The other view is based on pluralistic ignorance, in which uncertainty about others{\textquoteright} preferences is crucial. In an experiment, we find clear support for the pluralistic ignorance perspective. In addition, the strength of social interactions is important for a bad norm to persist. These findings help in understanding the causes of such bad norms, and in designing interventions to change them.