Normality is a relative term which
can mean a lot of things such as: what is the behavior of a majority of people;
something that has a rational explanation or simply something that is in
accordance with social norms and in the end what people believe it is normal.
At the same time, what the
majority of people do does not necessarily equal normality. If a majority of
people behave in a certain way it does not mean that it is the right way. For example
if a majority of people use public transport without paying a ticket it is not
normal. Similarly a behavior that is rationally explainable is not necessarily
normal. For example it is rational for people to drive as fast as possible to
save time, but going with 100 km/hour in a city is not exactly normal. For the
sake of the argument let’s say that normality is something that balances the
individual and communal interests. For example it is normal for an individual
to want to get as fast as possible from point A to point B and at the same time
it is normal to have road safety. So in this case normality would be driving
with maximum 50 km/hour in a city.
Going a bit back, what if
normality is not the most common behavior? What if normality is driving with 50
km/hour but the general behavior is driving with 80 km/hour? Is that a case
where normality should be praised? Or would it be simpler to severely punish
the abnormal majoritarian behavior (e.g. give huge fines)? More so, what if the
normal behavior is majoritarian, should normality be praised?
These are really tricky
questions. After all if people behave as they should why should we care? If
something normal is happening, isn’t it simply normal to be that way? Most
common knowledge and general social philosophy is centered on punishing “abnormal”
behavior with the goal (hope) that people that have been punished and people
who see others get punished would stick to the “Normal” behavior.
I believe that this way of
thinking is flawed. I believe that normality should be praised (or at least
congratulated). Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against punishing abnormal
behavior, but I know this way of guiding behavior through fear of punishment
has its limits and believe me it is highly limited. I will not detail here the
limits of the “principal – agent model” on which punishment is based since it
would take a lot of time. What is important is that ONLY punishment will not
have the desired results.
Let’s go back to praising
normality. As you might know I come from a country where “normality” (in the
sense of balancing self and group interests) is quite rare. Not to say that
everything is abnormal in the country of origin, but there is A LOT to be
improved. Not till long ago, I believed that normality should be simply acknowledged
and abnormality should be severely criticized (or punished). However, living for
more than 2 years in a society where normality is much more often encountered, I’ve
realized that praising normality is a good idea.
If you remember, earlier I’ve
asked if normality should be praised when the majoritarian behavior is the
abnormal one. In more simple words: should normality be praised in my country
of origin (where normality is quite rare)? The answer is YES! And I’ll explain
why. But, what if the majoritarian behavior is the normal one, should normality
be praised in this case too? The answer is again YES and I’ll explain why.
However, in the latter case, maybe “Praised” is not the exact word, rather it
should be rewarded with positive feed-back.
The essence of this post is “Positive
Feed-Back” and this might come in the form of Praising or simply in the form of
“Well-done!”. For better understanding of the argument, I’ll use the term “Positive
Feed-Back” from now on.
Let’s take the first case where “Normal”
Behavior is not the majoritarian behavior. Why do you think this could be?
One reason would be that people
are simply unaware of what “normal” is. In more simple words: people don’t know
how they should behave normally. Take the example of simply not knowing what
the speed limit is in a certain area. If you’ve never encountered such a
situation start driving in other countries outside the main roads. Similarly,
when in a new situation, one might not know how to behave appropriately. One
way of tackling this issue is to say what the norm is. Another one (not
excluding the first one) is to give positive feed-back when the appropriate
(normal) behavior occurs.
This positive feed-back when the
appropriate behavior occurs is very similar to “vicarious learning”. This type
of learning is very similar to the idea of “stumbling on the right behavior”.
When not knowing what the right behavior is, one would simply behave “randomly”
or does what others do. But if a positive feed-back comes when the “right”
behavior occurs, one would learn what the right behavior is. On the other hand
if only the “wrong” behavior is punished the person would simply learn what is “not
right”, but not learn “what is right”.
Another reason why the “Normal”
behavior is not the majoritarian behavior might simply be that the “social norm”
is to exhibit another behavior than the “normal” one. In this case positive
feed-back has the role of (attempting) to shift the “social norm”. If (some)
people would find out that the “normal” behavior is different from “what the
majority does” they are likely to change their behavior towards the “normal”
one. If many enough people do this, then the appropriate behavior will become majoritarian
and “doing what others do” will act in the favor of the normal behavior. In
other words, if enough people would start behaving appropriately, then the
social norm will become the appropriate behavior and thus, “following the herd”
will act as an enforcer of the “normal” behavior.
In the case of the majoritarian
behavior not being the “normal” one, (simply) punishing the abnormal behavior
will be highly ineffective. People would be puzzled since they see that what
they believed to be “normal” – namely what others do is punished. Moreover, not
the entire majority exhibiting the abnormal behavior will be punished (due to physical
limitations – e.g. the police can’t fine each and every driver that goes over
the speed limit). This will lead to frustration on the part of the people being
punished and it is rightfully so. In the end, others have the exact same behavior
and they don’t get punished, or others have a more pronounced behavior and they
don’t get punished. For example one might think that “other people drive with
100 km/hour in a city and they don’t get punished and I drove with only
80km/hour and I got a fine. This is unfair!”
Another issue in the case of “Normal”
behavior not being the majoritarian behavior is the source of information used
to learn or infer what the “social norm” is. One obvious source of information
is what one sees around. If on a road a driver sees that all other drivers go over
the speed limit, then this is the “social norm”. However, this is not the only
source of information one has and there are many more other sources, but one
stands out – mass media. If the media gives examples of people exhibiting the “abnormal”
behavior, one can infer that this is the “social norm” (observation bias).
Moreover, if the people exhibiting the “Abnormal” behavior get media attention,
then this might be the way for others to get media attention. The need for
status is a very powerful one and some people might believe that in order to
get noticed (e.g. appear on TV or get his or her name in the papers) one should
exhibit some sort of “severe case of abnormal behavior”.
This implies that mass media
materials that are meant to publicly criticize and / or bring shame on the
people that don’t obey the rules could have a very perverse effect. Even good
intentions of publicly criticizing people who do “wrong” things can have the
opposite effect for certain audiences. Imagine that for a young driver who has
lot of money and a “muscle” car getting his face on TV news with the mention
that he drove with 250km/hour (way above speed limits) is in fact an accomplishment.
Now people (especially his social reference group) will acknowledge that “he is
great” or “he is The MAN”.
In brief, if in order to get
noticed one has to exhibit a severe abnormal behavior, then the “right” thing
to do is to cut this media attention. Of course, this would be a form of censorship
which in democratic countries is not used (or at least not overtly). At the
same time there can be some sorts of “gentlemen’s agreement” that the media
should not publicize such abnormal behavior.
At the same time, if media
attention is given to the “normal” behavior (or to “severe cases of normal
behavior”) then two effects will occur. First, people will infer that this is
the “social norm” and conform to it, thus leading to exhibiting normal
behavior. Second, people will see that in order to get noticed they have to
exhibit “severe cases of normal behavior”.
Now, let’s go to the situation
when the “normal” behavior is majoritarian. Should positive feed-back be used
in this situation? As I said earlier, the answer is YES and here is why.
In this fortunate case where
normality is normal, complying with the social norm is working in favor of the “normal”
behavior. This means that there is already a mass of people that behave “normally”
thus, anyone who would need to infer what the “rule” is would see that the
majority of people behave in the “normal” way and mimic their behavior, thus
behaving “normally” themselves. However, social norms can change and sometimes
there what is needed for a social norm to change is just a hand-full of very
salient disobeyers.
Let’s take again the example of speeding. If on a road
every driver obeys the speed limit (let’s say 90 km/hour) and there are 10
drivers going with 150 km/hour that are passing the drivers obeying the speed
limit. Then for sure some of the drivers that were respecting the speed limit
will accelerate a bit… maybe not to 150, but at least to 100 – 110 km/hour.
Then other drivers will do the same and suddenly the ones that are obeying the
90 km/hour speed limit will be a rather small minority.
This is why positive feed-back is
more than welcomed even when the social norm is to exhibit the “normal”
behavior. Positive feed-back enforces the social norm.
The question that arises is “what
is positive feed-back?”. Positive feed-back is again a very wide concept. It
can take the form of a smiley face displayed on the radar in front of a school when
one is driving below 50km/hour (it works wonders). It can also take the form of
a “Good Job!” or “Nicely done!” coming from a supervisor of from a friend. It
can also take the form of “a pleasant sound” when doing something right with a
machine (such as checking in the tram in Rotterdam) etc. Positive feed-back can
take many forms and a hint for those of you who are trying to figure out what
to use is: try to generate positive emotions and not give just “information”
(e.g. numbers).
I’ve given examples with regard
to driving and speeding, but these are not the only areas where positive
feed-back can work wonders. In the book “Nudge” by Thaler and Sustein, there is
an example about “1 dollar per day for not getting pregnant”. I know that it
sounds a bit weird, but when getting pregnant at the age of 15 when living in a
poor environment, 1 dollar per day might be a good motivator.
In the end I’d like to make some
final remarks on negative and positive feed-back. Much of what (western)
society is about is to keep people behaving appropriately and condemning the
violation of norms. Fear is a very important and powerful emotion that can have
enormous effects in motivation to adopt or not a certain behavior. At the same
time, Fear is not as effective as we might think if there is only a chance (and
not certainty) of getting caught. Moreover, do we actually want to live in a
society driven by fear?
Many attempts to guide behavior
toward the “appropriate” one are biased by this “fear motivation”. As you may
know my home country has issues with corruption and there are campaigns that
promote not bribing public servants. However, no-one promotes being fair. No
one promotes those people who do their job without bribery. Similarly most
anti-drug and anti-smoking campaigns focus on the negative side of things. At
the same time no-one focuses on the advantages of not taking drugs and not
smoking.
Sometimes saying and punishing what’s
“wrong” does not necessarily indicate what is “RIGHT”.
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