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on Social Norms and Social Capital |
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Issue of 2025–06–30
eight papers chosen by Fabio Sabatini, Università degli Studi di Roma “La Sapienza” |
| By: | Daron Acemoglu; Asuman Ozdaglar; James Siderius |
| Abstract: | We consider the political consequences of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) by online platforms engaged in social media content dissemination, entertainment, or electronic commerce. We identify two distinct but complementary mechanisms, the social media channel and the digital ads channel, which together and separately contribute to the polarization of voters and consequently the polarization of parties. First, AI-driven recommendations aimed at maximizing user engagement on platforms create echo chambers (or “filter bubbles”) that increase the likelihood that individuals are not confronted with counter-attitudinal content. Consequently, social media engagement makes voters more polarized, and then parties respond by becoming more polarized themselves. Second, we show that party competition can encourage platforms to rely more on targeted digital ads for monetization (as opposed to a subscription-based business model), and such ads in turn make the electorate more polarized, further contributing to the polarization of parties. These effects do not arise when one party is dominant, in which case the profit-maximizing business model of the platform is subscription-based. We discuss the impact regulations can have on the polarizing effects of AI-powered online platforms. |
| JEL: | L10 M37 P40 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:nbr:nberwo:33892 |
| By: | Bloem, Michael D. (College Board); Holbein, John B. (University of Virginia); Imlay, Samuel J. (College Board); Smith, Jonathan (Georgia State University) |
| Abstract: | Using millions of siblings in the U.S., we detail three findings that quantify whether siblings influence one another to vote in national elections. First, and descriptively, younger siblings are 10 percentage points (50 percent) more likely to vote in their first eligible election when their older sibling votes in a prior election. Second, roughly one-third of this is caused by the older sibling voting, as determined by age-of-voting-eligibility thresholds in a regression discontinuity design. Third, the causal impact of a sibling voting runs in the other direction as well---younger siblings increase the probability of their older siblings voting in their early 20's by 14 percent. These results demonstrate the influence and importance of family and peers in creating an engaged citizenry and underscore that across a wide array of policy domains, conventional impact evaluations do not fully account for all of policies' impacts. |
| Keywords: | voting, civic engagement, political socialization, family, siblings, spillovers, peer effects |
| JEL: | J18 D19 D7 D72 D04 |
| Date: | 2025–06 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17962 |
| By: | Roberto Galbiati (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Emeric Henry (ECON - Département d'économie (Sciences Po) - Sciences Po - Sciences Po - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique); Nicolas Jacquemet (PSE - Paris School of Economics - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - ENS-PSL - École normale supérieure - Paris - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - EHESS - École des hautes études en sciences sociales - ENPC - École nationale des ponts et chaussées - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - INRAE - Institut National de Recherche pour l’Agriculture, l’Alimentation et l’Environnement, CES - Centre d'économie de la Sorbonne - UP1 - Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) |
| Abstract: | 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). |
| Keywords: | Observers, Injunctive norms, Descriptive norms, Polarization, Observers Injunctive norms Descriptive norms Polarization |
| Date: | 2025–06–16 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:hal:cesptp:halshs-05115226 |
| By: | Budría, Santiago (Universidad Nebrija); Betancourt-Odio, Alejandro (Universidad Pontificia Comillas); Fonseca, Marlene (Universidad Nebrija) |
| Abstract: | Climate change is intensifying the frequency and severity of weather-related natural disasters. These events generate significant monetary and non-monetary costs, undermining individual and societal well-being. Using a nationally representative longitudinal dataset from Australia, this study explores the dynamics of well-being before, during, and after natural disasters, with a particular focus on the mediating role of social capital. We employ an event-study design with individual fixed effects to capture both immediate and long-term effects of natural disasters on four critical dimensions of well- being: financial satisfaction, safety satisfaction, mental health, and psychological distress. Our findings reveal that the adverse impacts of natural disasters are profound and long-lasting, persisting in some cases for over 6–7 years, with well-being implications exceeding $1, 500, 000 in equivalent losses. We find that social capital emerges as a powerful buffer, significantly mitigating declines in safety satisfaction and mental health while reducing psychological distress both during and after disasters. |
| Keywords: | well-being, panel fixed-effects, hedonic adaptation, mental health, psychological distress |
| JEL: | J21 I31 G50 C23 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17907 |
| By: | Till Gross (Department of Economics, Carleton University); Casey Pender (Department of Economics, Mount Allison University) |
| Abstract: | During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, government and church officials actively sought to suppress Indigenous potlatch ceremonies along the Pacific Northwest, dismissing them as wasteful, uneconomic, and irrational. We present a counternarrative by developing a decentralized exchange model inspired by the monetary search literature. In our framework, agents decide whether to invest in social memory through ceremony—song, dance, and storytelling that serve as informal recordkeeping. By helping to sustain gift-giving networks, social memory can facilitate the distribution of goods even in single-coincidence meetings, thus increasing the extent of the market and making specialization more attractive. Our findings, therefore, challenge historical Western perceptions by demonstrating that potlatch ceremonies can increase wealth and social welfare. Additionally, our model highlights how geographic and cultural proximity shape participation in gift-giving networks, with barter becoming more prevalent among distant communities. We support our theoretical results with qualitative evidence and analytic narrative. |
| Keywords: | Decentralized Exchange, Gift-Giving, Indigenous Institutions, Social Memory |
| JEL: | E42 D83 J15 N12 P40 Z13 |
| Date: | 2025–06–18 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:car:carecp:25-03 |
| By: | Huynh, Quynh (University College London); Ku, Hyejin (University College London) |
| Abstract: | We examine the relationship between economic development and female labor force participation, with a focus on the impact of gender norms. Analyzing quasi-random variation in provincial exports in reunified Vietnam from 2002 to 2018, we find that a positive economic shock led to a significant decline in women’s labor market engagement, particularly among married women from wealthier households and those with husbands in more skilled occupations. This trend is more pronounced in the South (formerly capitalist) than in the North (always socialist), and among native Southerners compared to Northerners relocated to the South after the war. Our findings highlight the importance of gender role attitudes in shaping women’s responses to rising incomes. |
| Keywords: | female labor force participation, social norms, gender role attitudes, income and substitution effects, trade liberalization |
| JEL: | J16 J22 O12 |
| Date: | 2025–05 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:iza:izadps:dp17911 |
| By: | Al-Naemi, Mai; Lee, Hyun-Jung; Reade, Carol |
| Abstract: | While the corporate lingua franca mandate aims to facilitate communications among linguistically diverse employees, evidence shows that it creates more problems than it solves, often negatively affecting social integration and knowledge sharing in the workplace. Our study is driven by the phenomenon of high language diversity and low lingua franca proficiency, emerging characteristics of workplaces around the globe given increasing migration. We adopt a mixed-methods, longitudinal design involving participant observations, interviews, social network surveys, and company data. Our analysis revealed the existence and prevalence of an informal language advice network (LAN) in which individuals with varying levels of English proficiency actively engage in voluntary language-related knowledge-seeking and sharing. We found more positive interpersonal interactions and consequences of LAN than typically reported in extant studies. We leverage the social networks and generalized exchange literature to explain the processes and consequences of LAN for individuals and the organization. Management recognition was found to be important for sustaining LAN in a context of high language diversity. Our integrative analytical framework offers a valuable lens for scholarship on future workplaces that are being shaped by rapidly shifting ethnic, cultural, and linguistic demography. |
| Keywords: | language diversity; corporate lingua franca; knowledge sharing; social networks; generalized exchange theory; multinational corporation |
| JEL: | J50 |
| Date: | 2025–06–19 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ehl:lserod:127861 |
| By: | Aurel Stenzel; Johannes Lohse; Till Requate; Israel Waichman |
| Abstract: | We characterize 'Games of Altruistic Cooperation' as a class of games in which cooperation leaves the individual and the group of decision-makers worse off than defection, but favors individuals outside the group. An example is climate change mitigation. In this context, we experimentally investigate whether decentralized institutions using costly punishment and/or communication support altruistic cooperation to sustain the welfare of future generations. Without punishment or communication, cooperation is low; communication alone even increases the incidence of zero contributions. However, combining peer punishment with communication strongly increases cooperation, showing that an effective decentralized solution to a Game of Altruistic Cooperation exists. |
| Keywords: | games of altruistic cooperation, social dilemma, intergenerational good game, punishment, communication |
| JEL: | C92 D74 H41 Q54 |
| Date: | 2025 |
| URL: | https://d.repec.org/n?u=RePEc:ces:ceswps:_11880 |