Title How norms depend on the presence and status of observers: the relational contingency of everyday behaviors in 90 societies
Authors Simpson, Brent ; Eriksson, Kimmo ; Vartanova, Irina ; Strimling, Pontus ; Merchan Tamayo, J. Paola ; Abdi, Khalid Ahmed ; Ad, Neta ; Aldashev, Alisher ; Ali, Habib Mohammad ; Alì, Maurizio ; Aliyev, Khatai ; Alrefaee, Yasser ; Alvarado Ortiz, Alberth Estuardo ; Andersson, Per A ; Andrighetto, Giulia ; Arikan, Gizem ; Benzon R. Aruta, John Jamir ; Ayikwa, Christian Lutete ; Baños-Chaparro, Jonatan ; Barrera, Davide ; Batkeyev, Birzhan ; Batool, Azma ; Berezina, Elizaveta ; Ngandu Bimina, Stéphanie ; Björnstjerna, Marie ; Blumen, Sheyla ; Boski, Paweł ; Boštjančič, Eva ; Boum, Yap ; Briguglio, Marie ; Thu Bui, Huyen Thi ; Caycho-Rodríguez, Tomás ; Chen, Yanyan ; Kudzai Chiweshe, Manase ; Choi, HoonSeok ; Contreras-Ibáñez, Carlos C ; Čorkalo, Dinka ; Cruz-Torres, Christian E ; Czakó, Andrea ; de Zoysa, Piyanjali ; Demetrovics, Zsolt ; Dinić, Bojana M ; Drače, Saša ; El-Haddad, Rita W ; Engelmann, Jan B ; Escudero Pérez, Ignacio ; Euh, Hyun ; Fang, Xia ; Frank, Celine ; Freidin, Esteban ; Fulop, Marta ; Gamsakhurdia, Vladimer ; García Jiménez, Mauro Alberto ; Gardarsdottir, Ragna B ; Gavreliuc, Alin ; Hugues D. Gill, Colin Mathew ; Gjoneska, Biljana ; Glöckner, Andreas ; Graf, Sylvie ; Grigoryan, Ani ; Growiec, Katarzyna ; Haas, Brian W ; Haddock, Geoffrey ; Hadjisolomou, Stavros P ; Hadžiahmetović, Nina ; Haji Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Hosein ; Hakoköngäs, Eemeli ; Halama, Peter ; Hapunda, Given ; Hartanto, Andree ; Hazrati, Mahsa ; Herbas-Torrico, Boris Christian ; Holka, Szilárd ; Hřebíčková, Martina ; Hunter, John A ; Ibikounle, Moudachirou ; Ilisko, Dzintra ; Jónsdóttir, Harpa Lind Hjördísar ; Kaminskienė, Živilė ; Kapoor, Hansika ; Kapović, Iva ; Karim, Gassemi ; Kawakami, Kerry ; Khachatryan, Narine ; Kirschner, Julian B ; Kiruja, Jonah ; Kiyonari, Toko ; Kohút, Michal ; Kousar, Shazia ; Krasniqi, Besnik ; Landa-Blanco, Miguel ; Landon, Barbara ; Lep, Žan ; Leslie, Lisa M ; Li, Yang ; Liik, Kadi ; Lin, Ming-Jen ; Lobos Rivera, Marlon Elías ; López-López, Wilson ; Maloku, Edona ; Mandal, Mohona ; Manhique, Bernardo Ananias ; Mpeti Mbende, Nathan ; Mendes Teixeira, Maria Luisa ; Mohammed, Linda Lila ; Moore, Schontal N ; Moraligil, Bahar ; Muradzada, Nijat ; Nanda, Herwin ; Nastina, Ekaterina ; Nejat, Pegah ; Nettle, Daniel ; Nipassa, Orlando Julio Andre ; Noe-Grijalva, Martin ; Ntampaka, Pie ; Ntone, Rodrigue ; Nussinson, Ravit ; Oljača, Milan ; Onyedire, Nneoma G ; Onyishi, Ike E ; Panagiotopoulou, Penny ; Parvez, Md. Shahin ; Pasin, Gian Luca ; Pedović, Ivana ; Pérez de León, Pablo ; Perez Floriano, Lorena R ; Persson, Minna ; Pop-Jordanova, Nada ; Portillo, Jose Roberto ; Potang, Angela ; Quesada-Román, Adolfo ; Raver, Jana L ; Rodrigues, Ricardo B ; Rodríguez-Romero, Juan Diego ; Romanò, Sara ; Ross, Robert M ; Rosun, Nachita ; Sadiković, Selka ; San Martin, Alvaro ; Smederevac, Snežana ; Smith, Sarah Jane ; Soboleva, Natalia ; Sonessa, Daniel Erena ; Stanley, Samantha K ; Stoyanova, Kristina ; Stoyanov, Drozdstoy ; Takemura, Kosuke ; Thøgersen, John ; Tiliouine, Habib ; Tung, Hans ; Ulambayar, Tungalag ; Uždavinytė, Elzė Marija ; Waechter, Randall ; Wu, Junhui ; Martial Yambiyo, Brice ; Yankson, Eric ; Yeh, Kuang-Hui ; Van Lange, Paul A. M
DOI 10.1177/00031224261464586
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Is Part of American sociological review.. Thousand Oaks : SAGE Publications. 2026, vol. 91, iss. 5, p. 709-730.. ISSN 0003-1224. eISSN 1939-8271
Keywords [eng] social norms ; status hierarchies ; cross-cultural sociology ; moral foundations ; social psychology
Abstract [eng] Norms are fundamental to social life, but basic questions about how they are affected by social context remain. Specifically, how do normative constraints depend on the presence and status of observers, and how do such relational contingencies vary across cultures? Using data from more than 25,000 individuals across 90 societies, we test several hypotheses linking normative constraints on everyday behaviors (like arguing, laughing, cursing, kissing, and crying), to the presence and status of observers. We find that behaviors widely viewed as appropriate in private become more constrained in the presence of others (an observer effect), and even more so when those others are higher in status (a status effect). Both observer and status effects are culturally universal, but the observer effect shows more variation across cultures. In particular, we find that observer effects are larger in societies that emphasize individualizing moral foundations, that is, avoiding harm and unfairness to others, because these societies are more permissive of actions when others are not around. The relative stability of status effects across cultural contexts suggests a universal tendency to defer in social hierarchies. These findings shed light on the relational contingency of everyday norms and underscore the role of such norms in the maintenance of social order and reproduction of inequality.
Published Thousand Oaks : SAGE Publications
Type Journal article
Language English
Publication date 2026
CC license CC license description