Department of Economics, Universidad del Rosario, Bogotá DC 111711, Colombia.
Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, Orange, CA 92866.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Aug 2;119(31):e2120138119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2120138119. Epub 2022 Jul 28.
Social norms have long been recognized as an important factor in curtailing antisocial behavior, and stricter prosocial norms are commonly associated with increased prosocial behavior. In this study, we provide evidence that very strict prosocial norms can have a perverse negative relationship with prosocial behavior. In laboratory experiments conducted in 10 countries across 5 continents, we measured the level of honest behavior and elicited injunctive norms of honesty. We find that individuals who hold very strict norms (i.e., those who perceive a small lie to be as socially unacceptable as a large lie) are more likely to lie to the maximal extent possible. This finding is consistent with a simple behavioral rationale. If the perceived norm does not differentiate between the severity of a lie, lying to the full extent is optimal for a norm violator since it maximizes the financial gain, while the perceived costs of the norm violation are unchanged. We show that the relation between very strict prosocial norms and high levels of rule violations generalizes to civic norms related to common moral dilemmas, such as tax evasion, cheating on government benefits, and fare dodging on public transportation. Those with very strict attitudes toward civic norms are more likely to lie to the maximal extent possible. A similar relation holds across countries. Countries with a larger fraction of people with very strict attitudes toward civic norms have a higher society-level prevalence of rule violations.
社会规范长期以来一直被认为是遏制反社会行为的一个重要因素，而更严格的亲社会规范通常与更多的亲社会行为有关。在这项研究中，我们提供的证据表明，非常严格的亲社会规范可能与亲社会行为产生相反的负面影响。在跨越 5 大洲的 10 个国家进行的实验室实验中，我们测量了诚实行为的水平，并引出了诚实的规范。我们发现，那些持有非常严格规范的人（即那些认为小谎和大谎一样不可接受的人）更有可能尽可能地撒谎。这一发现与一个简单的行为推理一致。如果感知到的规范不能区分谎言的严重程度，那么对于规范违反者来说，尽可能地撒谎是最优的，因为它最大限度地提高了经济收益，而规范违反的感知成本则保持不变。我们表明，非常严格的亲社会规范与高水平的规则违反之间的关系适用于与常见道德困境相关的公民规范，如逃税、骗取政府福利和逃避公共交通费用。那些对公民规范持有非常严格态度的人更有可能尽可能地撒谎。这种关系在各国之间是普遍存在的。那些对公民规范持有非常严格态度的人比例较大的国家，其社会层面的规则违反现象更为普遍。
