Popular Delusions: How Social Conformity Molds Society and Polit ...

Reciprocity means that someone will contribute to the group in the expectation or trust that others will also, for their mutual benefit. This norm is still close to economic reasoning, however, as it assumes that there is the prospect of an exchange of services in the group. But other norms, such as altruism or civic duty, might accomplish the same collective benefit. That issue aside, Kahan points to several areas where a more effective public policy might be achieved by complementing Olson’s model with the conformity model: income tax compliance, street crime, and the siting of public facilities like waste dumps, prisons, and airports that no one wants in his or her backyard. Such a change in policy would depend, of course, on the precondition that public behavior around these areas is influenced by conformity with social norms. The first two of these policy areas, taxes and crime, are discussed in the book and shown to be affected by conformity. To deter crime one might adopt either a rational choice policy or a conformity model. The former relies on heavy sanctions: swifter punishment, longer sentences, more people locked up. These make the potential costs of committing a crime exceed the gains. Under the conformity model, by contrast, one would take actions that make norms against crime more salient and bring community pressure to bear on bad behavior.

Political conformity is also different from what is typically studied in the field of political psychology, such as public opinion and the influence of mass media, the role of emotion in political behavior, leadership style and elite decision making, and the interplay of personality and politics. Ideas from social psychology are more on the fringe of political psychology than central research issues.

The schematic diagram in Figure 1-1 illustrates the sphere of explanation for collective social and political behavior on the social conformity dimension. The origins, at the top of the figure, are in social groups and norms. Information about groups and norms is stored and interpreted in the brain, inducing conformist behavior in people, but this may also depend on situational factors. People may not be consciously aware of their own decisions or how they reached them.