Personal norms — and not only social norms — shape economic behavior
通过一个简单的效用框架和两阶段实验，发现个人规范与社会规范及金钱收益一样，能高度预测个体在不同经济博弈中的行为，且与社会规范相互独立并互补。
We propose a simple utility framework and design a novel two-part experiment to study the relevance of personal norms across various economic games and settings. We show that personal norms — together with social norms and monetary payoff — are highly predictive of individuals’ behavior. Moreover, they are: (i) distinct from social norms across a series of economic contexts; (ii) robust to an exogenous increase in the salience of social norms; and (iii) complementary to social norms in predicting behavior. Our findings support personal norms as a key driver of economic behavior. • We study the relevance of personal norms in economic decision-making. • We propose a simple utility framework and design a novel experiment to estimate it. • Personal norms are highly predictive of behavior across various games and settings. • They are distinct from social norms and complement them in predicting behavior. • They remain robust predictors even when social norms are made salient.