Norms and laws

Hey, you can't do that! You can't just skip past people in the queue! Why not? Is there a law that says I can't? No...

it's more like an... unwritten rule. Unwritten rules... they don't count! They do.

Unwritten rules about how to behave in a group, or in society are called norms. You follow norms all the time. In a while for example, when you go into that movie theater, you'll turn off your phone, right? And you won't talk loudly with the person next to you? Then, you're following norms.

Some norms have been explained to you, maybe by a parent, when you were very young. Other norms are never explained -- you pick them up from your surroundings, more or less unconsciously, because most others around you behave a certain way -- and eventually you start doing that too. Norms can be very different, in different places, and among different groups. Here for example, on the island, you don't walk up and stand really close to someone that you don't know very well. You keep a bit of a distance, give each other some personal space.

But over on the Volcano island, which is a much smaller island, there are many more people, a larger population. There, people stand considerably closer to each other, without anyone finding it weird. Norms change over time, too. A long time ago, it was almost exclusively men who worked outside the home. It wasn't prohibited by law, but it was considered inappropriate for women to have a job.

That norm changed when some started going against it. At that time, many others thought these people were wrong, violating the norm. But today, most people probably view them as brave pioneers, who defied the norm and did what they thought was right. Just like I did! Well, perhaps.

It's not only how we behave that affects the norms; the laws play a part as well. Do you remember what happened last year, when you were so upset over people riding their bicycles and texting at the same time? Yes, those fools! Everybody knows that it's stupid, but still they did it! So I wrote to everyone in Parliament and complained!

Yes, you wrote and asked them to establish the norm as a law. What else did you do? Oh well, I wrote a bit in the papers I guess. Yes, indeed you appeared in the media. And you got some researchers interested, and they made experiments, and measurements, and came to the conclusion that you were correct: there is a larger risk of crashing while texting on a bike.

Yes, eventually the law was passed! Yes, people's perception of what's right affected the laws. And then one more interesting thing happened. Before the law was in place, about half of the population thought it was wrong to text while cycling. But now the law exists, four out of five thinks it's wrong to do that.

So, people's perception of what's right, is also affected by the laws. Norms then, are not unchangeable: not static. They develop along with our behaviour and our views. And norms both affect - and are affected by - laws. Hey, you can't do that!

You can't just skip past people in the queue!