Beyond Homo Economicus : New Developments in Theories of Social Norms

For more than a century, Homo economicus has exclusively populated the theoretical world of economics. This model of the rationally selfinterested actor has also come to dominate substantial subfields of political science, sociology, law, and philosophy. However, many theorists doubt whether this model can explain most social phenomena unless it is supplemented with more socially sophisticated elements, such as social and ethical values, altruism, and desires for social status. Among these theorists are Avner Ben-Ner and Louis Putterman, who have published the results of such supplementation by various contributors in Economics, Values, and Organization. The contributors ask: Why and when do people cooperate? How do social norms evolve? How do values and incentives interact and influence social organizations and market outcomes? These questions lead to one of the central puzzles of social theory: that of explaining why people comply with social norms.’ A social norm is a standard of behavior shared by a social group, commonly understood by its members as authoritative or obligatory for them. Social norms differ from moral norms: they need not have moral content or be viewed as morally obligatory (consider norms of fashion). Nor are they the same as norms of rationality, which apply to the individual as such,