The dynamic nature of social norms: New perspectives on norm development, impact, violation, and enforcement

Social norms are a key feature of human sociality. By clarifying expectations and facilitating coordination, social norms serve as the cornerstones of well-functioning collectives. Reflecting their pivotal role in sustaining the smooth operation of groups and communities, research on social norms in psychology and adjacent disciplines is flourishing. Nevertheless, several critical questions have only recently begun to attract scholarly attention. Here we highlight important new developments in the study of social norms, presenting recent insights into how norms develop in groups; how norms influence affect, perception, and judgment; how people respond to norm violations; and how norms are enforced. We also identify lacunae in the current understanding of social norms, recommending that future research (1) develop a theoretically grounded taxonomy of social norms to facilitate scholarly exchange; (2) further investigate the dynamic unfolding of normative processes over time; (3) expand the scope of investigation by considering the cultural context; and (4) pursue cross-disciplinary integration to enable a more comprehensive understanding and build robust multi-level theory that can account for the effects of norms on individuals, groups, and societies.