Distinguishing Social and Moral Norms

Why are some behaviors perceived as moral norms while others are perceived as social norms? In a preregistered study (N = 535), we examined how people perceive different types of moral behaviors and whether those perceptions help distinguish between moral and social norms. To test this, we assigned participants to one of five types of commonly studied norms—conventional, fairness, harm, purity, and generosity—and presented them with eight behaviors, four prescriptive and four proscriptive. To capture differences in belief internalization, participants answered a series of measures for each behavior assessing intrinsic motivation to follow the behaviors, beliefs about the importance of norm adherence (or avoidance), and sensitivity to reputational concerns in their intentions to engage in the behaviors. We had two main findings: First, our measures of internalization varied across behavioral domains, such that harm was generally perceived as the most internalized and conventional behaviors the least. Second, harm perceptions partially mediated differences in intrinsic motivation between harm and several behavioral domains, suggesting that harm perceptions may underlie differences in internalization between social and moral norms. Together, our results reveal important differences in how people perceive social and moral norms, informing our understanding of norm cognition and internalization.