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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2025–05–26
eight papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Patricia Justino; Melissa Samarin |
| Abstract: | This paper examines the erosion of trust as a global phenomenon, highlighting its implications for social cohesion and governance. Using data from the World Values Survey and regional barometers, the analysis focuses on trust's dual dimensions—interpersonal and institutional—within different socio-economic and geopolitical contexts. Results show a sharp decline in institutional trust worldwide, coupled with a mixed trajectory for interpersonal trust. |
| Keywords: | Trust, Social cohesion, Governance, Social contract |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:unu:wpaper:wp-2025-34 |
| By: | Sophie Hatte (ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Université de Lyon, CERGIC - Center for Economic Research on Governance, Inequality and Conflict - ENS de Lyon - École normale supérieure de Lyon - Université de Lyon); Jordan Loper (CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne); Thomas Taylor (EUI - European University Institute - Institut Universitaire Européen) |
| Abstract: | Can social media help promote female access to political positions? Using data from 8, 814 parliamentary races across 17 sub-Saharan African countries, we explore this question in a context of significant political underrepresentation of women and rising Facebook penetration over the past decade. We leverage the staggered introduction of Facebook's Free Basics-i.e., free access to Facebook through partner mobile operators-across constituencies and time, documenting the success of this connectivity shock and its subsequent effect on female political representation. We find that the availability of Facebook's Free Basics significantly increases the election of female candidates, but only after one electoral cycle. This effect is driven by female candidates endorsed by established political parties and running for the first time. Uncovering the underlying mechanisms, we document a large, positive relationship between social media use and egalitarian gender norms, particularly regarding women in politics. Examining users' online network structures, we show that this association is driven by exposure to diverse and progressive content, and that such online connections are key to Free Basics' electoral impact. Finally, we find that Free Basics' effect is contingent on the presence of fair elections but is amplified where traditional press freedom is limited. |
| Keywords: | Social media, Mobile internet, Gender norms, Elections, Candidate selection |
| Date: | 2025–05–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cdiwps:hal-05056150 |
| By: | Kitamura, Shuhei; Takahashi, Ryo; Yamada, Katsunori |
| Abstract: | This paper examines how voters' perceptions of other voters influence their voting behavior. We first document substantial misperceptions regarding others’ attitudes toward political malfeasance by incumbent politicians: some voters, particularly those who support the malfeasant incumbent’s party, hold more lenient views, perceiving others as more tolerant of political corruption. In contrast, voters who support opposition parties and those without strong partisan affiliations tend to hold more stringent views. Using an online survey experiment, we provide information about prevailing social norms of intolerance toward corruption. We find that the treatment increases voter turnout and the likelihood of voting for an opposition candidate, particularly among voters with stringent prior beliefs. However, we also observe a backfire effect among those with more lenient views. This study underscores the critical role of voters' perceptions of others in shaping vote decisions and offers insights into how political accountability can be promoted in a world of rising political polarization. |
| Date: | 2025–05–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:osf:osfxxx:gajx9_v1 |
| By: | Hua, Tony |
| Abstract: | People often avoid information to evade social obligations and justify selfish behavior. However, such behavior unfolds within a social context, where beliefs about others’ actions shape individual choices. This study examines how social expectations, shaped by perceived norms and decision framing, influence individuals’ willingness to avoid information. In a modified moral wiggle-room game, participants first predict how often others acquired information, then receive feedback about others’ information-seeking behavior before making their own decision as the dictator. The experiment manipulates (1) the feedback on norms participants receive, reflecting varying rates of information avoidance, and (2) whether they know in advance that they will be making the decision themselves, thereby inducing either a \textit{self-referential} or \textit{socially} framed perspective. Individuals were more likely to acquire information when exposed to norms favoring transparency, with pessimistic participants—those who believed ignorance was common—responding most strongly. Optimistic individuals showed little adjustment. Contrary to expectations, there was little evidence that participants distorted their beliefs about others to justify selfish behavior. However, a notable gender difference emerged: female participants, when primed with self-referential framing, were significantly less responsive to normative cues than males. Finally, an exploratory comparison with previous experiments suggests that belief elicitation itself, even in the absence of normative cues, significantly reduces information avoidance, highlighting a promising and scalable intervention for promoting transparency. |
| Keywords: | information avoidance; moral wiggle-room; social norms; social appropriateness; experiment |
| JEL: | C72 C91 D8 D83 |
| Date: | 2025–04–01 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:124363 |
| By: | Matthias Cologna (Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, Italy); Robin Scheuch (Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods & University of Cologne) |
| Abstract: | Cross-cultural research on tax compliance provides two competing explanations for differences in tax paying behavior. The institutional explanation focuses on differences in institutions (e.g., fines, frequency of audits), while the cultural explanation emphasizes differences in culture as an important driver. Contrary to most other studies analyzing differences across countries, we take not only a within-country but a within-region perspective, specifically the Northern Italian region of South Tyrol. Here, two main linguistic - and cultural - groups, German and Italian, co-exist within the same institutional environment. We use a lab-in-the-field experiment with a non-student pool of 190 participants recruited in Bolzano/Bozen, the largest city in South Tyrol. We document that, while the overall level of evasion is similar, there is a difference in tax compliance between the two groups when differentiating between the intensive and extensive margin: Italian speakers evade larger amounts whereas German speakers tend to evade more often. Our experiment is completed by a belief elicitation task and a dice truth-telling game. For both groups perceived tax compliance is lower than actual tax compliance and German speaking taxpayers are perceived to be more compliant. In the dice game, Italian speakers report higher numbers than would be expected from a fair die. |
| Keywords: | Tax Evasion, Culture, Beliefs, Honesty. |
| JEL: | H26 D91 C91 C93 R10 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:bzn:wpaper:bemps114 |
| By: | Eduardo C. Ferraciolli; Francesco Renzini; Tanya V. Araújo; Flaminio Squazzoni |
| Abstract: | St. Francis of Assisi (1181/82-1226) famously called money the devil’s dung, and indeed money is often associated with greed, inequality, and corruption. Drawing on Nowak’s five rules for the evolution of cooperation, we argue here that money promotes the formation of circuits of generalized reciprocity across human groups that are fundamental to social evolution. In an evolutionary tournament, we show that money exchange is an evolutionarily stable strategy that promotes cooperation without relying on the cognitive demands of direct reciprocity or reputation mechanisms. However, we also find that excessive liquidity can be detrimental because it can distort the informational value of money as a signal of past cooperation, making defection more profitable. Our results suggest that, in addition to institutions that promoted trust and punishment, the emergence of institutions that regulated the money supply was key to maintaining generalized reciprocity within and across human groups. |
| Keywords: | money, cooperation, reputation, generalized reciprocity, evolution. |
| JEL: | C23 E52 E58 E62 G12 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ise:remwps:wp03792025 |
| By: | Tamilina, Larysa |
| Abstract: | This study examines the effects of the ongoing war on social trust within Ukrainian society. The key finding suggests that the conflict contributes to a decline in trust, primarily due to its various adverse impacts on individuals. Additionally, the war appears to undermine contextual resources essential for trust-building, thereby indirectly contributing to the erosion of social trust. |
| Keywords: | Social trust, War, Conflict, SEM, Ukraine. |
| JEL: | P0 Z10 |
| Date: | 2025–04–15 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:pra:mprapa:124499 |
| By: | Blamey Amelia (Motu Economic and Public Policy Research); Ilan Noy (Victoria University of Wellington) |
| Abstract: | We investigate the effect of interpersonal and institutional trust on COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy. Although the development of COVID-19 vaccinations helped to reduce the spread and severity of the disease, ongoing vaccine hesitancy has presented a challenge. We ask whether interpersonal and institutional trust predict COVID-19 vaccination delay and refusal. We use an unprecedently rich and representative dataset of over 22, 000 New Zealand respondents, sourced from the 2014, 2016, and 2018 General Social Survey. Respondents reported their trust in seven domains: Parliament, police, health, education, courts, media, and the general public. Their survey responses are linked to respondents’ later records of vaccinations and their socio-demographic characteristics. We assess the correlation between their earlier interpersonal and institutional trust and vaccination delay and refusal while controlling for relevant covariates. We find that all measured trust domains exhibit a significant and negative correlation with vaccine hesitancy. As trust increases, vaccination hesitancy decreases and so does the time it takes people to vaccinate. The correlation is strongest for trust in police and interpersonal trust, and weakest for trust in media. By understanding how trust informs vaccination decision-making, we can better prepare for and respond to future pandemics and public health vaccination campaigns more generally. |
| Keywords: | COVID-19, vaccination, trust, general social survey, GSS |
| JEL: | I12 I18 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:mtu:wpaper:25_03 |