The Influence of Descriptive Norms on Group Members' Behavioral Expectations: A Review of Behavioral and Neurophysiological Evidence
Abstract
member of it. This article reviews behavioral, event-related potential (ERP), and neuroimaging work bearing on one question: how do descriptive norms—what most members of a group actually do—come to shape an observer's expectations about other members? Two ideas run
through the evidence. The first is the principle of rationality, which holds that observers read actions as efficient attempts at goals; the second
is social categorization theory, which explains why information gleaned from some members is generalized to the rest. Whether generalization rests on the goal of an action or on its movement form turns out to depend on properties such as goal-directedness, efficiency, and how
common the action is in the group. On the neural side, the medial prefrontal cortex, temporoparietal junction, and posterior superior temporal
sulcus appear to support norm-based prediction, and several ERP components—the N170, the N400, and the late positive complex—respond
when a norm is violated. We close with open problems: ERP paradigms designed around norm violation, computational models of how norms
are updated, and cross-cultural tests of how far these mechanisms travel.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.70711/wef.v4i5.10142
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