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Norm is a culturally
established rule prescribing appropriate social behaviour. Norms are relatively specific
and precise and elaborate the detailed behavioural requirements that flow from more
general and overarching social values. A norm fixes the boundaries of behavior.
However, a rational person only acts according to the rule if only it suits her. A norm
gives an expectation of how other people act in a given situation. In order for a norm to
be stable, people's actions must reconstitute the expectation without change. A set of
such correct stable expectations is known as a Nash equilibrium. Thus, a stable norm must
constitute a Nash equilibrium.
For example, the norm in Western society is that one should respect the dead and it is
a norm that one should dress in dark colours for a funeral.
Social sanctioning is what distinguishes norms from other cultural products or social
constructions such as meaning and values. Norms and normlessness are thought to affect a
wide variety of human behavior.
Do Ethical Principles Explain Moral Norm? A Test for Consent to Organ Donation
Authors: Blondeau, Danielle; Godin, Gaston; Gagné, Camille; Martineau, Isabelle
Abstract: Moral norm is a strong predictor of intention with respect to certain behaviors.
In the context of a study of organ donor consent, the goal was to enrich the ethics
construct with the help of the following three dimensions: autonomy, beneficence, and
justice. The results indicated that the interrelations among the ethics variables were
significant. However, the results also indicated that moral norm was influenced only by
beneficence. Conducting other studies in different cultural contexts and verifying other
behaviors would shed light on whether beneficence still influences moral norm.
Source: Journal of Applied Biobehavioral Research, Volume 9, Number 4, September 2004, pp.
230-243(14) - ingentaconnect.com |
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