Social Norms as Constraints for Policy Changes
Name of applicant
Julia Nafziger
Title
Professor
Institution
Aarhus University
Amount
DKK 51,865
Year
2022
Type of grant
Field Trips / Research Stays < 100,000
Summary
Social norms guide human behavior because they embody the collective expectations that members of a community have about each other. Yet, norms guiding behavior also means norms putting constraints on behavior and on behavior change. Using lab experiments founded in theory, the aim of this project is to study the consequences of constraints of social norms. We investigate how social norms constrain the implementation of policy reforms and the consequences hereof for the speed of reform. We aim to show how evolving social norms influence the degree to which controversial policies are accepted, and how to best implement reforms that run counter to existing norms - all at once or gradually.