Sripada and Konrath (forthcoming) use Structural Equation Modeling techniques to provide empirical evidence for the claim that implicit and automatic inferences about people’s dispositions, and not normative judgments, are the driving cause behind the pattern of folk judgments of intentional action in Knobe’s (2003a) chairman case. However, I will argue that their evidence is not as strong as t...

Normative cognition – a uniquely human cognitive capacity ’Normative cognition’ is a ’mongrel’ concept covering human cognition of symbolically mediated normative information. Humans have social and cultural cognition of which normative cognition is a subset. Humans can produce, distribute, acquire and implement social norms and values. Normative cognition requires certain cognitive skills such...

Self-presentation may require self-regulation, especially when familiar or dispositional tendencies must be overridden in service of the desired impression. Studies 1-4 showed that self-presentation under challenging conditions or according to counter-normative patterns (presenting oneself modestly to strangers, boastfully to friends, contrary to gender norms, to a skeptical audience, or while ...

This study examined the contribution of general normative beliefs about aggression and specific normative beliefs about retaliatory aggression in predicting physical, verbal, and indirect aggressive behaviors. Two hundred and forty-nine Grade 4 and Grade 5 boys completed the Normative Beliefs about Aggression Scale (NOBAGS) and provided self-reports on the frequency of their physical, verbal, a...

In a modified dictator game, I test experimentally the robustness of social preferences to (1) information about others’ behavior and (2) self-reflection about the morally right behavior. I find that whereas information has a strong effect on people’s moral judgments, it has virtually no effect on their revealed preferences. In contrast, self-reflection changes social preferences substantially....

The music downloading phenomenon presents a unique opportunity to examine normative influences on media consumption behavior. Downloaders face moral, legal, and ethical quandaries that can be conceptualized as normative influences within the self-regulatory mechanism of social cognitive theory. The music industry hopes to eliminate illegal file sharing and to divert illegal downloaders to pay s...

This study examines some of the important organizational consequences of the fashion phenomenon in information technology. An IT fashion is an information technology transitorily collectively believed as new, efficient, and at the forefront of practice. Using data collected from published discourse and annual corporate IT budgets, I have found that companies associated with IT fashions did not ...

In a four-wave longitudinal study with N = 1,321 adolescents in Germany, we examined the impact of class-level normative beliefs about aggression on aggressive norms and behavior at the individual level over the course of 3 years. At each data wave, participants indicated their normative acceptance of aggressive behavior and provided self-reports of physical and relational aggression. Multileve...

Engagement with self-help groups is a predictor of positive outcomes for those attempting to control their addictive behaviours. In common with other groups, self-help groups have to manage non-normative ('deviant') behaviour to ensure the social values of the group remain preserved, and the group can fulfil its aims. These processes may protect group members from relapse. Drawing on the Social...