糖心TV

Gordon Brown (Psychology Department)

Nudging and social norms: Models and implications

I will talk a little about “nudges” that involve provision of social norm information, and briefly present some new data. I will then describe an agent-based model of social norm effects and polarisation. It is assumed that, when choosing an action, agents located within a social network observe the behaviour of social network neighbours and hence infer the social distribution of particular attitudes. Agents are assumed to dislike behaviours that are extreme within their neighbourhood (social extremeness aversion), and hence have a tendency to conform. However agents are assumed also to prefer choices that are consistent with their own true beliefs (authenticity preference). Behavioural choice reflects a compromise between these opposing principles. The model explains a number of social phenomena including homophily and the development of segregated neighbourhoods, polarisation, certainty and confidence effects on social conformity, and a number of other phenomena.