Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T00:24:42.307Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Evolutionary Approach to Norms

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 1986

Robert Axelrod
Robert Axelrod*
Affiliation:
University of Michigan
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Norms provide a powerful mechanism for regulating conflict in groups, even when there are more than two people and no central authority. This paper investigates the emergence and stability of behavioral norms in the context of a game played by people of limited rationality. The dynamics of this new norms game are analyzed with a computer simulation based upon the evolutionary principle that strategies shown to be relatively effective will be used more in the future than less effective strategies. The results show the conditions under which norms can evolve and prove stable. One interesting possibility is the employment of metanorms, the willingness to punish someone who did not enforce a norm. Many historical examples of domestic and international norms are used to illustrate the wide variety of mechanisms that can support norms, including metanorms, dominance, internalization, deterrence, social proof, membership in groups, law, and reputation.

Type
Articles
Information
American Political Science Review , Volume 80 , Issue 4 , December 1986 , pp. 1095 - 1111
Copyright
Copyright © American Political Science Association 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abreu, Dilip, Pearce, David, and Stacchetti, Ennio. 1985. Optimal Cartel Equilibria with Imperfect Monitoring. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Institute for Mathematics and its Applications.Google Scholar
Akerlof, George A. 1980. A Theory of Social Custom, of Which Unemployment May Be One Consequence. Quarterly Journal of Economics, 94:749–75.10.2307/1885667CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Almond, Gabriel, and Verba, Sidney. 1963. The Civic Culture. Princeton: Princeton University Press.10.1515/9781400874569CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arkin, William, and Fieldhouse, Richard W.. 1985. Focus on the Nuclear Infrastructure. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 41:11–15.10.1080/00963402.1985.11455975CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asch, Solomon E. 1951. Effects of Group Pressure upon the Modification and Distortion of Judgment. In Guetzkow, Harold, ed., Groups, Leadership and Men. Pittsburgh: Carnegie Press.Google Scholar
Asch, Solomon E. 1956. Studies of Independence and Conformity: I. A Minority of One Against a Unanimous Majority. Psychological Monographs, 41:258–90.Google Scholar
Axelrod, Robert. 1979. The Rational Timing of Surprise. World Politics, 31:228–46.10.2307/2009943CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Axelrod, Robert. 1984. The Evolution of Cooperation. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Axelrod, Robert, and Keohane, Robert O.. 1985. Achieving Cooperation Under Anarchy: Strategies and Institutions. World Politics, 38:226–54.10.2307/2010357CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black-Michaud, Jacob. 1975. Cohesive Force: Feud in the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bronfenbrenner, Urie. 1970. Two Worlds of Childhood: U.S. and U.S.S.R. New York: Russell Sage.Google Scholar
Cantril, Hadley. 1941. The Psychology of Social Movements. New York: Wiley.10.1037/13593-000CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cialdini, Robert H. 1984. Influence—How and Why People Agree to Things. New York: Morrow.Google Scholar
Cyert, Richard M., and March, James G.. 1963. A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Dahl, Robert A., ed. 1966. Political Oppositions in Western Democracies. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Darley, John M., and Batson, C. Daniel. 1973. “From Jerusalem to Jerico”: A Study of Situational and Dispositional Variables in Helping Behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 27:100–108.10.1037/h0034449CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, James W. 1971. A Non-cooperative Equilibrium for Supergames. Review of Economic Studies, 38:1–12.10.2307/2296617CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Furubotn, Eirik G., and Pejovich, Svetozar, eds. 1974. The Economics of Property Rights. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
Hardin, Garrett. 1968. The Tragedy of the Commons. Science, 162:1243–48.10.1126/science.162.3859.1243CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hardin, Russell. 1982. Collective Action. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Holland, John H. 1975. Adaptation in Natural and Artificial Systems. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Holland, John H. 1980. Adaptive Algorithms for Discovering and Using General Patterns in Growing Knowledge Bases. International Journal of Policy Analysis and Information Systems, 4: 245–68.Google Scholar
Keohane, Robert O. 1984. After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Krasner, Stephen D., ed. 1983. International Regimes. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Krehbiel, Keith. 1985. Unanimous Consent Agreements: Going Along in the Senate. Working paper no. 568. California Institute of Technology, Social Science Department.Google Scholar
Kreps, David M., and Wilson, Robert. 1982. Sequential Equilibria. Econometrica, 50:863–94.10.2307/1912767CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matthews, Donald R. 1960. U.S. Senators and Their World. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.Google Scholar
Meyers, Samuel M., and Bradbury, William C.. 1968. The Political Behavior of Korean and Chinese Prisoners of War in the Korean Conflict: A Historical Analysis. In Meyers, Samuel M. and Briderman, Albert D., eds., Mass Behavior in Battle and Captivity, The Communist Soldier in the Korean War. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Olson, Mancur. 1965. The Logic of Collective Action. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Opp, Karl-Dieter. 1979. Emergence and Effects of Social Norms—Confrontation of Some Hypotheses of Sociology and Economics. Kylos, 32: 775–801.Google Scholar
Opp, Karl-Dieter. 1983. Evolutionary Emergence of Norms. British Journal of Social Psychology, 21: 139–49.10.1111/j.2044-8309.1982.tb00522.xCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orbell, John M., Schwartz-Shea, Peregrine, and Simmons, Randall T.. 1984. Do Cooperators Exit More Readily than Defectors? American Political Science Review, 78:163–78.10.2307/1961254CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schelling, Thomas. 1978. Micromotives and Macrobehavior. New York: W. W. Norton.Google Scholar
Schotter, Andrew. 1981. Economic Theory of Social Institutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511983863CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, John F. 1971. Internalization of Norms. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Selten, R. 1975. Reexamination of the Perfectness Concept for Equilibrium Points in Extensive Games. International Journal of Game Theory, 4:25–55.10.1007/BF01766400CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sherif, Muzafer. 1936. The Psychology of Social Norms. New York: Harper and Brothers.Google Scholar
Spence, A. Michael. 1974. Market Signalling. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Truman, Ben C. 1884. Field of Honor: A Complete and Comprehensive History of Dueling in All Countries. New York: Fords, Howard and Hilbert.Google Scholar
Ullmann-Margalit, Edna. 1977. The Emergence of Norms. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Veblen, Thorstein. 1899. The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Submit a response

Comments

No Comments have been published for this article.