Cultural embeddedness: Social norms, normative beliefs & society

What is culture as social learning?

Culture:

• knowledge passed from generation to generation

• shared pool of knowledge in a population

Function:

• solves trial & error for each person (collective learning)

• Knowledge builds up over generations (cumulative)

Comparative study of Wobber (apes & humans)

Approach:

• compare human children (2-4) to juvenile apes

• Task: phyiscal (tool use to reach a reward) & social (copying actions by experimentor)

Result:

• Children = similar to apes in physical tasks

• Children outperformed apes in social learning

How does social learning help in real life? (lost explorer experiment)

Theory:

• Explorers stranded in unfamiliar places struggled → human intelligence alone not enough

Results: expeditions failed without local knowledge

→ expeditions were more successful if they learned from indigenous populations (=social learning)

Who is Roald Amundsen & why is he important in the context of social learning?

First successful Northwest Passage traverse (1903-1906)

• learned survival skills (e.g., making skin clothes, hunting seals) from Netsilik people → culture/social learning as a survival tool

• Previous expeditions failed due to starvation

→ culture is a social good

How does sociology understand culture?

Culture = languages, customs, beliefs, rules, arts, knowledge, identities, and memories

→ developed by social groups to make their environment meaningful

• meaning is expressed in narratives, ideologies, practices, values, norms and social classifications

Concept: reality is a construct

Societies create reality through culture

• markets & objects gain meaning and purpose via culture

• reality is shaped and maintained by ongoing social interaction

→ encompasses the evolutionary definition of culture

How does individual action turn into culture?

1. Externalization: repeated actions create cultural goods/norms, independent of who does them (create social norms; not eating pork)

2. Objectification: these goods/norms come to be seen as “objective reality” (different groups may see them differently)

3. Internalization: through socialization, individuals adopt these norms as part of their own reality

Study: east vs. west Germany - Gender attitudes and reunification

Motivation:

• separation & reunification created two different political/social regimes

→ Does exposure to these different regimes lead to lasting differences in gender attitudes (esp. gender roles and work)?

Theory:

• State socialism (East): Official commitment to gender equality, more women in paid work, extensive childcare

• Conservatism/traditionalism (West): more emphasis on traditional family roles, fewer women in the work force

Data: General Social Survey (1980-2008)

• nationally representative sample

• items on gender attitudes (e.g. whether mothers should work, importance of women supporting husband’s career, etc.)

Results:

• East Germans consistently hold more gender-egalitarian views than West Germans, even long after reunification

• East Germans are more likely to agree that mothers can work without harming children

• Differences are robust across time and different measures

→ Institutions and policies can shape social attitudes for decades

How do cultural norms shape individual behavior?

Cultural norms & individuals norms interact

• Individual actions affect societal norms

• Societal norms:

  • become universal when widely adopted & in turn, shape how individuals behave

Harmfulness of cultural norms

• can reinforce outdated or biased behaviors

  • not always positive

• Harmful norms can restrict individuals or spread bad beliefs

Ex.: Antisemitism under the Nazis (WWII)

Empirical example: Are old prejudices persistent?

Background:

• Jews were blamed for the Black Death in 1349-1350

→ Do places with anti-Semetic pogroms in the Middle Ages show more antisemitism 600 years later (1920-1945)?

Data:

• historical data on medieval pogroms

• Data on interwar outcomes: Nazi vote share, attacks on Jews, etc.

Results:

• Places with medieval pogroms showed higher antisemitism in the Nazi era

  • effect not explained by economics or region → attitudes & culture can persist for centuries

• Ex.: Anti-Semetic legends in Deggendorf until 1992 & less persistence in areas with more trade (e.g. Hanseatic League)

Study on diplomatic parking tickets - corruption & enforcement

Background:

• corruption is widespread; unclear whether it’s caused by opportunities, individual preferences, or cultural norms

Focus: unpaid NYC parking tickets by UN diplomats

Theory: Diplomats from different countries have immunity → unpaid tickets reflect home-country norms about rule-breaking

Results:

• Huge variation by country:

  • Diplomats from more corrupt countries rack up far more unpaid tickets

• Strong correlation between home-country corruption and violations in NYC

• After NYC started confiscating plates in 2002 → dramatic drop in violations

→ both culture and enforcement shape real-world corruption, but without enforcement, home-country culture dominates behavior

Study: How do restrictive gender norms affect female employment in India?

Background:

• Female employment is low in many countries (India: 26%)

  • big reason: restrictive gender norms in families

Does employer-led intervention shift family attitudes and increase women’s employment?

Design:

• Intervention:

  • family-oriented videos (positive messages about female employment)

  • staff-mediated conversations with families

Results:

• no significant effect from either intervention video or conversation

→ cultural norms around women working are very “sticky” (hard to shift even with targeted programs)

→ Deeply rooted cultural norms can’t be changed quickly or easily by small information-based interventions

• Explanation for low female employment despite policy attention