What are rules for? Fundamental motives of social rules: Rules on average were rated as being most relevant for affiliating with a group, followed by avoiding exclusion, achieving/maintaining status, and kin care

What are rules for? Fundamental motives of social rules. Jung Yul Kwon, Michael Barlev, Douglas T. Kenrick, Michael E.W. Varnum. Human Behavior and Evolution Society 31st annual meeting. Boston 2019. http://tiny.cc/aa1w6y

Abstract: What do people think social norms for? At the group level, mutually agreed upon rules or expectations of appropriate social behavior serve to solve coordination problems and maintain order in society. At the individual level, people may perceive norms to facilitate achieving desired outcomes in various life domains, which leads to increased probability of reproductive success. We examined how people construe social norms in terms of their relevance to fundamental social motives. In the first study, U.S. participants free-listed ten social rules they considered important, and then rated how relevant each rule was for achieving positive outcomes in the fundamental social motive domains. In subsequent studies, rather than generating their own rules, participants were given a well-known set of rules in society to rate. Across these studies, we consistently found that rules on average were rated as being most relevant for affiliating with a group, followed by avoiding exclusion, achieving/maintaining status, and kin care.