Upcoming talk by Tatu Nuotio, University of Helsinki
“Norms without (conceptual) boundaries: why intervening on social norms requires pluralism about their influence”.
Philosophy and the social sciences are home to various accounts of what social norms are and how they influence behavior. Facing this diversity, some authors have adopted pluralistic positions, while others have sought to establish clear conceptual distinctions, for example by restricting the notion of social norms to include only some suggested forms of their influence.
In this talk, Tatu Nuotio focuses on the question of how the influence of social norms should be understood in the practical context of behavior change interventions. Prima facie, circumscribed accounts of social norms that clearly define what counts as their influence may seem attractive, because they provide a ready template for identifying norms and figuring out how they can be intervened on. However, Nuotio argues that a pluralistic perspective is needed for two reasons: to account for the different goals and contexts of different norm-based interventions, and to address motivational heterogeneity in similar interventions. Based on these considerations, the speaker suggests a family-resemblance view of social norms that admits some features associated with social norms as more central than others, but without erecting strict conceptual boundaries.
