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

Clearly, people may not always be as rational as this model supposes, so one may have to modify the theory to account for human limitations in a given application. Rational choice theorists divide over whether it explains social conformity and norms. This hinges on the question of including psychic or emotional motivations and rewards in an individual’s preference ranking. Some theorists argue for preferences that relate only to external, material things, which would generally put social conformity outside of rational choice explanations. Other theorists, however, expand the scope of rational choice to include internal preferences that can account for socially oriented behaviors like cooperation or fairness and put social conformity within the scope of rational choice. In this view, rational choice theory sees conformity as it does other behavior, in terms of relatively fixed individual preferences and goals.¹² People conform with a social norm because it gains them an advantage, makes them feel good, helps them achieve a goal, or avoids a punishment; that is, if people do it, it must be because it is something they choose to do with intent and understanding of the alternatives. Presumably, people weigh the pluses against the minuses of conforming in a situation, along with other expected costs and benefits, and take the logical path of their best interest. All of this, however, ignores the nonconscious side of cognition. If a person is not consciously aware of why they made a decision, how can one impute rationality?

Almost all versions of rational choice incorporate the idea of methodological individualism, which holds that social norms and society itself are nothing more than the aggregation of individual preferences and choices; beyond that, human psychology and culture are mostly irrelevant.¹³ Under this assumption, the relationships of individuals to one another in society do not affect the aggregation of individual choices. As I will show from research on social conformity, however, people’s behavior and decisions often are affected by that of others.

Sociologists and social psychologists are less likely to use rational choice models.¹⁴ Their view is that a human society has a life of its own and an impact on individuals that is more than the sum of individual behaviors.¹⁵