explain how norms are one of the important bases of social structure
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The Normative Basis of Group Behavior
Social norms are rules of behavior. They inform group members how to construe a given situation, how to feel about it, and how to behave in it. They exert social influence on group members by prescribing which reactions are appropriate, and which are not (Abrams, Wetherell, Cochrane, Hogg, & Turner, 1990). Social norms hence direct individuals’ cognitions, emotions, and behaviors. They also serve as evaluative standards, against which individuals’ reactions are judged. Quite evidently, social norms are subject to consensus within specific groups—eating with a fork is appropriate in some groups while eating with sticks is more appropriate in others.
While people sometimes behave in accordance with norms of salient groups they are not members of (e.g., taking one’s shoes off when entering a Hindi temple as a Christian tourist), social norms exert their full influence and are internalized only when they originate from ingroups. Because adhering to an ingroup’s social norms is a major component of what it means to be a member of that social group, this kind of normative pressure increases in tandem with identification with the group. Individuals who identify strongly with an ingroup in a specific situation are likely to exhibit the normative behaviors prescribed by that group (e.g., fans chanting together as their team’s mascot enters the field). This referent informational influence (see also Hogg & Turner, 1987) is a marker of social identification, enabling people to distinguish between members and non-members of a group, and between groups on the basis of their observably different norms. This difference in norms is a part of the normative fit referred to in the social identity approach: a group’s norms are contextually informative and socially meaningful.
Because norms also supply group-members with an evaluative standard, they can contribute to a process known as group polarization. The result is that norms within the ingroup can shift to more extreme positions, as members observe their peers acting in increasingly extreme ways, and expressing more extreme versions of the original norm (Isenberg, 1986). This process may sound familiar to anyone who has participated in an online discussion of a political (or any other charged) issue: Individuals quickly organize themselves into opposing camps, and often end up competing with each other at slinging insults at the other camp. Unfortunately, this dynamic has very real implications to contemporary political life,
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