Culture as norm representations: The case of collective responsibility attribution

Norms, spoken or implicit, regulate much of our social life. They are social control devices evolved to coordinate human activities in collective living (Fiske, 2000; Heylighen & Campbell, 1995). In this chapter, focusing on the social regulatory functions of cultural norms and using collective responsibility attribution as an example, we will discuss the role of norms, which are major components of knowledge tradition, in cultural processes. Culture as shared representations. Similar to other forms of knowledge representations (such as lay theories, see Chapter 2, this volume; and intersubjective values, see Chapter 3, this volume), social norms are knowledge representations that are shared among individuals within a collective. They provide premises in normative social inferences (e.g., inferences about whether a certain action should be carried out) and define the normative standards of behavior (e.g., determine whether a certain behavior is punishable or forgivable in the eyes of the public).