Дисертації з теми "Norms"

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Com essa pesquisa tem-se a intenção de enriquecer o debate sobre o tema das normas linguísticas, mais especificamente acerca das normas linguísticas coexistentes no português do Brasil, mostrando a visão de importantes autores da sociolinguística no que concerne à divisão e nomenclatura dessas normas, além de esclarecer os aspectos socio-históricos envolvidos na constituição da norma padrão brasileira. Também busca evidenciar que há um aparato ideológico, denominado aqui de ideologia da norma-padrão, que mantém o status elevado de uma norma, a prescritiva, sobre as demais, normas cultas e normas populares. Para isso, observamos como esta ideologia se manifesta na sociedade através da análise de comentários feitos por seguidores da página “Palavra Certa – Dicas da Língua Portuguesa” pertencente à rede social Facebook. Com esta análise foi possível identificar as representações que diferentes falantes têm não só da língua portuguesa, como também dos usos que outros falantes fazem dessa língua
With this research the intention is to enrich the debate on the theme of linguistic norms, especifically about the linguistic norms that coexist in brasilian portuguese, showing the vision of importants sociolinguistic authors, concerning the division and nomenclature of these norms, in addition clarifies the socio-historical aspects involved in the constitution of the brasilian standard norm. Also seeks to evidence that exists an ideological apparatus, named here as the ideology of standard norm, that maintains the hight status of one norm, the prescriptive, above the others, cultured norms and popular norms. For this it observes how this ideology manifests itself in a society through analysis of comments made by followers of the page “Palavra Certa – Dicas da Língua Portuguesa” belongs to Facebook social network. With this analysis it was possible to identify the representations that the speakers have not only of the portuguese language, but also of the use that different speakers make in this language

The thesis is a study of relational norms - those norms that regulate how we behave in our valuable relationships. I argue that the presence of relational norms in the law reflects its capacities and limitations as an instrument for the guidance of conduct. I make three arguments in support of this claim. First, I argue that we have norms that are constitutive of our practically significant relationships. Second, I argue that the content and justification of these relationships is not necessarily reflected in their legal forms. Third, I argue that we can have relationships that are justified by their instrumental value. There are three Parts to this thesis, each of which is devoted to one of these claims. Part I discusses relational norms in practical reasoning. I identify relational norms as norms that constitute a relationship of value. I then argue that we can owe obligations to one another in what I call the 'relationship sense'. These obligations are neither necessarily enforceable, nor necessarily correlate with the rights of others. Part II discusses relational norms in law. I consider various constraints on the incorporation of relational norms in law, as well as the various relationships of correlativity that are sometimes said to define private law. I also consider the nature of legal rights to perform certain relational duties. I argue that although the duties are burdensome, these rights promote our interests, or at least are claimed to do so by legal officials. Part III considers the significance of relational norms to the general character of law. First I argue that we can have instrumental relationships - relationships that possess their value in virtue of some end that they serve. I then argue that any authoritative relationship that exists between legal officials and their subjects must be instrumentally justified.

This thesis examines the practice of normative contestation in the African Union (AU) and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Dissatisfied with existing liberal, realist, and rationalist accounts of normative change, the thesis develops a new theoretical approach involving competing 'norm circles,' actors committed to endorsing or enforcing a norm, whose perceived utility of a norm determines their stance. The model suggests that under conditions of contestation involving at least two norm circles, actors compete according to the terms of their domain, the regional organization. The differences involve actors' competencies in controlling the initiative, their mastery of other shared norms, and their ability to seek other opportunities of influence, termed 'metis.' Empirically, the thesis examines six case studies, three each from the AU and ASEAN, in which significant new norms testing member state sovereignty were proposed, after which the norms were either accepted, rejected, or qualified, according to how the contest unfolded. Each case reviews the historical origins of the norm and the proposal, followed by analysing how each norm circle used the factors mentioned above to seek approval for their proposals. It then assesses the relative importance of the factors, alternative explanations, and future implications for the norms in each case. In the AU, the three cases were the proposals for the United States of Africa, the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in Africa, and the Pan-African Parliament. In ASEAN, the thesis examines the question of human rights in the ASEAN Charter, the attempt to formalize the 'ASEAN minus X' principle, also during the charter drafting, and the contestation over the creation of a regional human rights mechanism, which eventually became the ASEAN Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights.

La situation sociolinguistique du Gabon est constituée des langues des Pygmées, des langues bantoues, du français et des langues des autres Étrangers. Le français, avec son statut de langue officielle, se décline en trois registres de langue : la variété acrolectale, la variété mésolectale et la variété basilectale. Dans un premier temps, les manifestations de norme endogène du français dans la presse écrite gabonaise du 1er août 2002 au 30 octobre 2002, résultent des phénomènes de l’urbanisation. Libreville, produit d’une disparité urbaine gabonaise, porte la dynamique factrice des processus sociohistoriques de l’implantation du français au Gabon. Ainsi, la capitale politique et administrative du Gabon, représente tantôt un facteur d’unification, de conflit et de coexistence linguistique ; tantôt Libreville porte le schéma de communication réunissant les émetteurs, les annonceurs, les producteurs des médias sous l’angle de la presse écrite plurielle ayant deux courants : la presse d’État et la presse d’opposition. Dans un deuxième temps, les particularités linguistiques du français de la presse écrite gabonaise sont traduites à travers un imaginaire linguistique. Ce dernier comporte trois types de normes : les Normes Systémiques, les Normes Statistiques et les Normes Subjectives. Les premières mettent en lumière le processus de formation des particularités linguistiques : l’influence des langues substrats, l’usage de tous les registres, le mélange code écrit/code oral. Les deuxièmes reflètent la hiérarchisation statistique des particularités linguistiques et les causalités liées à la dynamique de l’urbanisation des langues, aux causalités sociopolitiques, aux causalités logico discursives. Les dernières, les Normes Subjectives, retranscrivent les représentations linguistiques sur les écarts, suscitant ainsi le sentiment d’Insécurité Linguistique. Mais ce dernier est sous une double perspective : celle du co texte par la figure de Makaya et celle du contexte par le journaliste. Makaya, porteur de l’« incorrect » présente l’homme de la rue s’offusquant devant les travers de la société. Le journaliste est le porte-parole qui par son appartenance à un journal, participe à la construction de la norme endogène et à sa légitimité
The sociolinguistic environment in Gabon comprises the languages of the Pigmies, the Bantou languages, French and the other languages spoken by foreigners. French, as the official language, has three speeh registers: the acrolectal, mesolectal and basilectal forms. At the start, the manifestations of the endogenous norm of French in the Gabonese written media are rooted in urbanisation. Libreville, as the concrete expression of Gabonese urban disparity, carries the dynamic at the heart of the socioliguistic process of French establishing itself in Gabon. Thus, the political and administrative capital of Gabon is either a factor of unification, conflict and linguistic coexistence; either Libreville gives the outline of communication involving the media broadcasters, advertisers and producers, as seen from the angles of two currents of a diverse press: the State and the opposition medias.Then, in a second stage, the linguistic characteristics of the French language are conveyed through a linguistic imaginative world. It includes three types of norms: systemic, statistical and subjective ones. The systemic norms throw light on the development of linguistic idiosyncratic forms, on the influence of substratum languages, on the use of all language registers and on the intermingling of written and oral codes. The statistical norms reflect the statistical hierarchy of linguistic features and causalities linked to the changes of the language in the process of urbanisation, to the sociopolitical context and to logical discursive causes. The last i.e. the subjective norms translate the differences in language representations generating a feeling of linguistic insecurity. This can be sensed under a double perspective, the one of the co-text as related to Makaya and the one of the context. Makaya, perceived as “improper”, presents the man/woman in the street taking offense at the failings of society. Journalists are spokepersons who through their working for a newspaper take part in the construction of the endogenous norm and its recognition

Thesis advisor: Liane Young
Research in three parts used behavioral methods and fMRI to shed light on the nature of moral norms and situate them within a broader understanding of how people deploy cognition to navigate the social world. Results revealed that moral norms in two clusters: {1} “universal-rights norms” (i.e., values focused on universal rights to be unharmed and treated as an equal); and {2} “group-elevating norms” (i.e., loyalty, reciprocity, obedience to authority, and concern about purity) predicted prosocial and antisocial moral judgments, interpersonal orientations, and behaviors through cognitive mechanisms including representations of causation and theory of mind (ToM). Five studies reported in Part 1 demonstrated that universal-rights norms were positively associated with prosociality (equal allocations and willingness to help); whereas group-elevating norms were robustly positively associated with antisocial interpersonal orientations (Machiavellianism and Social Dominance Orientation). Three studies in Part 2 showed that group-elevating norms predicted antisocial moral judgments including stigmatization and blame of victims. In contrast, universal-rights values were associated with sensitivity to victims’ suffering and blame of perpetrators. Experimentally manipulating moral focus off of victims and onto perpetrators reduced victim-blaming by reducing perceptions of victims as causal and increasing perceptions of victims as forced. Effects of group-elevating norms on victim-blaming were likewise mediated by perceptions of victim causality and forcedness, suggesting that intervening on focus constitutes one way to modulate effects of moral norms on moral judgments. Four studies in Part 3 examined moral diversity within the domain of fairness and revealed that group-elevating and universal-rights norms are differentially reflected in conceptions of fairness as reciprocity, charity, and impartiality. Reciprocity and charity warranted being clustered together as person-based fairness due to their shared motivational basis in consideration of the unique states of individuals and emotion, and their robust, overlapping recruitment of neural activity indicative of ToM in PC, VMPFC and DMPFC. Impartiality, which favored no particular individual, constituted person-blind fairness, due to its reliance on standard procedures rather than the unique states of individuals or emotion, and its failure to recruit PC, VMPFC and DMPFC. In terms of fairness and moral praiseworthiness, these three allocative processes cleaved along a different line. Person-blind impartiality was rated most fair and highly moral, and person-based fairness broke apart into: charity, deemed highly moral and labeled by the most empathic participants as fair; and reciprocity, which was lowest in fairness and moral praiseworthiness ratings and most esteemed by Machiavellian individuals and those who made a greater number of self-interested allocations. Enhanced activity in LTPJ for unfairness generally, and in judgment of reciprocity in particular, pointed to a role for ToM in moral evaluation of these different conceptions of fairness. Findings across Parts 1-3 have meta-ethical implications. Reduced endorsement of universal-rights norms and increased endorsement of group-elevating norms conferred risk for antisocial judgments, interpersonal orientations and behaviors, suggesting that universal-rights norms and group-elevating norms may differ in their capacity to produce moral outcomes. Results demonstrating a role for ToM and representations of causality in the effects of moral norms on moral judgments deserve focus in future research. It will be important to determine how deeply moral values imbed into individuals’ cognitive architecture, and the extent to which effects of moral values can be modulated via interventions on basic cognition
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2015
Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Psychology

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2018.
Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.
Includes bibliographical references.
The first essay addresses why people might conform to norms that they do not endorse. One explanation is pluralistic ignorance: when everyone appears to endorse a norm, even nonendorsers will conform so as to feign their commitment to the group's values, thereby exacerbating the misperception. But this explanation is limited because people seem to even conform to norms that are widely known to contradict the group's values ("visibly unpopular norms"), to the point that their conformity appears insincere. I argue that such insincere conformity is an especially potent signal of commitment because it shows that one is willing to sacrifice one's personal preferences on others' behalf. Using both qualitative and experimental methods, I study the visibly unpopular norm prescribing excessive drinking in after-hour business gatherings in South Korea. The analysis indicates that an insincere conformist to the drinking norm is perceived as an especially committed relationship partner. An important implication is that some norms might persist not despite the fact they contradict group members' preferences but because of this contradiction. The second essay (coauthored with Ezra W. Zuckerman Sivan) addresses why norms might not persist despite their wide popularity. Recent research suggests that many norms may be upheld by closet deviants who engage in enforcement so as to hide their deviance. But various empirical accounts indicate that audiences are often quite sensitive to this ulterior motive. Our theory and experimental evidence identify when inferences of ulterior motive are drawn and clarify the implications of such inferences. Our main test pivots on two contextual factors: (1) the extent to which individuals might try to strategically feign commitment and (2) the contrast between "mandated" enforcement, where individuals are asked for their opinions of deviance, and "entrepreneurial" enforcement, where enforcement requires initiative to interrupt the flow of social interaction. When the context is one where individuals might have a strategic motive and enforcement requires entrepreneurial initiative, suspicions are aroused because the enforcers could have remained silent and enjoyed plausible deniability that they had witnessed the deviance or recognized its significance. Given that the mandate for enforcement might be rare, a key implication is that norms might frequently be under-enforced.
by Minjae Kim.
Chapter 1. A Man Is Known by His Cup: Signaling Commitment via Insincere Conformity -- Chapter 2. Faking It Is Hard to Do: Entrepreneurial Norm Enforcement and Suspicions of Deviance (coauthored with Ezra W. Zuckerman Sivan).
Ph. D.

In a norm game, under certain conditions, there exist Nash equilibria of mutual cooperation. Experimental work demonstrates that even in one-shot situations the level and proportion of cooperative behavior increases if an punishment option is available to the players of a public goods game. It is therefore important to analyze conditions such that this is consistent with a rational choice approach. The paper is meant as a first step toward this task. The main result will be that nonstandard assumptions about human motivations or preferences can explain norms with sanctions even in one-shot situations. This is shown by an analysis of the norm game with two well-known recent models of fairness from behavioral game theory.

Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der Untersuchung der institutionalisierten Beziehungen zwischen der NATO und Russland seit 1997 und konzentriert sich dabei besonders auf die Ergebnisse des „Permanent Council“ (PJC, 1997) und des „NATO-Russia Council“ (NRC, 2002). Das Vermächtnis von Strukturen, die während des kalten Krieges entstanden, beeinflusst weiterhin die Interaktionen zwischen der NATO und Russland. Dies wurde insbesondere während der Kosovo-Krise und nach dem 11. September 2001, welcher die „post-post-Cold War era“ einläutete, sichtbar. Das zentrale Kapitel der Dissertation beinhaltet eine empirische Analyse der Policy-Felder, denen sich der PJC und der NRC widmen. Hier wird vor allem auf die Zusammenarbeit von der NATO und Russland auf dem Balkan und auf den Kampf gegen den Terrorismus eingegangen. Die Fallstudie untersucht NATO-Russland Interaktionen in Zentralasien; besonders im Hinblick auf geopolitische Trends, die für beide Akteure und ihre zukünftigen Beziehungen wichtige Auswirkungen haben werden. Diese Arbeit untersucht die Qualität der Beziehungen zwischen der NATO und Russland anhand von Ereignissen, welche diese Beziehungen geprägt haben und erklärt, warum manche Verhaltensmuster sich kontinuierlich wiederholen.
This dissertation examines the institutionalized relationship between NATO and Russia since 1997; focussing on the outcomes of the 1997 Permanent Joint Council (PJC) and the 2002 NATO-Russia Council (NRC). The legacy of Cold War structures has continued to influence the way NATO and Russia interact; most notably during the Kosovo crisis and in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11 that rang in the “post-post-Cold War era”. The bulk of the research consists of an empirical analysis of policy fields covered by the PJC and the NRC. Particular attention is given to NATO-Russia interaction in the Balkans, as well as to the fight against terrorism. The case study assesses NATO-Russia interaction in Central Asia, taking into consideration geopolitical trends that will shape both actors’ actions in the future. Tracing events that have shaped NATO-Russia relations, this dissertation analyzes the quality of NATO-Russia relations and explains why certain patterns keep reoccurring.

An architecture for norm-regulated multi-agent systems based on an algebraic approach to normative systems is instrumentalized and further developed. The core of the instrumentalization is a Prolog module, which together with a Java library can be used for creating client/server-based runtime systems. Norms are represented as conditional sentences, whose normative consequences are formulated by applying normative operators to descriptive conditions. From such general normative conditions follow normative sentences regarding specific states of affairs. These in turn result in permission or prohibition of individual actions in specific situations. Furthermore, an approach to turning runtime systems into instruments for problem-solving by using evolutionary mechanisms for evolving normative systems, is presented. The construction of norm-creating operators on conditions, which forms the basis for the representation of normative systems, is approached from two angles. (i) A logical analysis based on the Kanger-Lindahl theory of normative positions is conducted. This results in two extended sets of types of normative positions, and based on an algebraic version of one of these extended systems, a set of operators for creating agent-specific norms is constructed. (ii) An alternative analysis, which takes as its starting point a systematic exploration of types of state transitions, yields a set of norm-creating operators based on prohibition of transition types. It is furthermore argued that in the context of a class of transition systems, in which transitions are deterministic and associated with a single agent performing an act, operators based on (ii) specify a meaningful semantics of operators based on (i). Theoretical results together with shared code and example applications contribute to make possible theoretically sound, transparently described, and efficiently implemented norm-regulated autonomous agent systems.
En arkitektur för normreglerade multiagentsystem baserad på en algebraisk representation av normativa system instrumentaliseras och vidareutvecklas. Kärnan i instrumentaliseringen utgörs av en Prolog-modul som tillsammans med ett Java-bibliotek kan användas för att skapa client/server-baserad körbar kod. Normer representeras som ordnade par av grundvillkor och följdvillkor. De senare konstrueras genom att normativa operatorer appliceras på deskriptiva villkor. Från sådana generella normativa villkor följer normativa satser om specifika sakförhållanden, vilka i sin tur ger upphov till förbud mot eller tillåtelse att utföra enskilda handlingar i olika situationer. Vidare skisseras en metod för att göra körbara multiagentsystem till verktyg för problemlösning genom att använda evolutionära mekanismer för att odla fram normativa system. Konstruktionen av normskapande operatorer på villkor, vilka ligger till grund för representationen av normativa system, betraktas ur två olika synvinklar. (i) En logisk analys, baserad på Kanger-Lindahls teori om normativa positioner. Denna resulterar i två utökade uppsättningar av typer av normativa positioner och utgående från en algebraisk version av ett av dessa utökade system konstrueras sedan en uppsättning operatorer för att skapa agentspecifika normer. (ii) En alternativ analys, som tar sin utgångspunkt i en systematisk undersökning av olika typer av tillståndsövergångar. Denna ger upphov till en uppsättning av normskapande operatorer som är baserade på förbud mot olika typer av övergångar. Argument presenteras vidare för att inom ramen för en klass av övergångssystem, där övergångar är deterministiska och associerade med en agent som utför en handling, så specificerar operatorer baserade på (ii) en meningsfull semantik för operatorer baserade på (i). Teoretiska resultat tillsammans med tillgängliggjord programkod och exempel på tillämpningar bidrar till att underlätta skapandet av teoretiskt sunda, transparent beskrivna och effektivt implementerade normreglerade system av autonoma agenter.

At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 4: Submitted. Paper 5: Forthcoming.

This thesis is about foreign policy analysis and what it could learn from an examination of Turkey's Outside Turks policy. More specifically, the thesis explores the implications of the post-Kemalist changes in Turkey on Outside Turks communities in the case of Kosovar Turks and offers a norm-based analysis of the constitutive relationship between domestic politics and foreign policy formation and conduct. Throughout the thesis, accordingly, the domestic norms guiding the way Turkey approaches Outside Turks, the conduct of domestic norms-guided Outside Turks policy and, finally, the implications of such policy for the Kosovar Turks are explored. Based on this, the study establishes firstly that the traditional policy of transforming the religiously defined Turkish speaking Muslim communities in the surrounding countries to nationally thinking and acting ethnic Turkish communities has changed after 1980s, but particularly during the Justice and Development Party rule. The aspiration shifted towards imagining Outside Turks in cultural and religious lines, other than in purely ethnic sense. Thus invoking and safeguarding the practice of Muslim identity, history and culture became a priority concern in the Outside Turks policy agenda. The thesis secondly establishes that this shift in approach has been generated by four post-Kemalist norms, namely Ottomania, de-ethnicized nationhood, Turkish Islam, and Islamic Internationalism. These post-Kemalist norms have manifested themselves as practices of transforming the ethnically mobilized and behaving Turkish community in Kosovo as religiously and historico-culturally thinking and acting community. The thesis thirdly establishes that the post-Kemalist approach to the Outside Turk community in Kosovo has been constitutive for the community. Accordingly, Turkey’s anti-nationalist practices and activities of restoring inter-ethnic relations in Ottoman lines have partly relieved the relations between Turks and Albanians, facilitated the transcending of ethnicity as a bases for organizing relations, and increased the scope for collaboration between Muslim communities in the country. However, such post-Kemalist policies could not deconstruct the dominant nationalist framings, it has rather been counter-productive. Therefore, due to the post-Kemalist approach, the ethnic Turkish identity has been sharpened, Ottomans have been ethnicized as a Turkish emperorship, the nationalism gained a reactionary character, and people now believe that their ethnic survival is jeopardized by Turkey’s anti-nationalism or ‘anti-Turkism’ as the community calls it. This in return has led the community to further embrace Kemalist frames and discourses to resist Turkey’s post-Kemalist approach and norms. The thesis, consequently, introduced a norm-based foreign policy analysis model for examining the overseas implications and influences of domestic norms and norm changes.

Contrairement à l'hypothèse conventionnelle d'égoïsme avancée par la théorie standard, il est largement reconnu que les gens se comportent systématiquement de manière prosociale et, en outre, que la propension à le faire est sensible à plusieurs éléments du contexte décisionnel, qui autrefois étaient systématiquement relégués au second plan. Notre thèse s'intéresse particulièrement au fait que les préférences sociales constituent des éléments contextuels décisifs et examine la mesure dans laquelle les normes sociales peuvent expliquer des déviations comportementales qui autrement pourraient sembler irrationnelles. Dans un contexte où les budgets publics sont limités et ou les défis sociaux et environnementaux sont de plus en plus pressants, les interventions basées sur des approches comportementales peuvent constituer des instruments politiques attrayants, notamment du fait de leur moindre coût en comparaison des mesures basées sur descontraintes réglementaires et/ou sur des incitations économiques. Étant donné que les normes sociales peuvent être un déterminant important des performances globales d'une société dans des domaines très variés, nous étudions plusieurs aspects liés à la conception optimale de ces interventions comportementales qui exploitent les considérations normatives, ainsi que de la dynamique entre les normes sociales et les mesures institutionnelles formelles. Nous réalisons également une revue de la littérature relative à l'impact des interventions basées sur les normes sociales sur les comportementsenvironnementaux ainsi qu'aux mécanismes théoriques sous-jacents permettant d'expliciter le le rôle de ces normes dans le processus décisionnel
A growing body of empirical evidence demonstrates that decision-making is embedded within complex personal, cognitive, and social contexts that call for a richer understanding of behavior than that described by traditional neoclassical economic theory. Contrary to the conventional selfishness assumption advanced by standard theory, it has now been established that people systematically behave in prosocial ways and furthermore, that the propensity to do so is sensitive to a variety of elements of decision context that have historically been considered irrelevant. We examine the assumptions that social preferences are outcome-regarding and consistent, and the extent to which social norms may be implicated in the divergences from these assumptions.This work has a strong applied focus. In an environment of limited public budgets and increasingly pressing social and environmental challenges, interventions based on behavioral insights can be appealing policy instruments, as they are often more economical than traditional command-and-control or incentive-based tools, and have the potential to generate reliable and immediate behavior change. Given that social norms can be an important determinant of aggregate societal outcomes in a diverse range of contexts, we investigate several aspects of the optimal design of behavioral interventions that leverage normative considerations, as well as the dynamics between social norms and formal institutional measures. These works are complemented by a review of the literature regarding the impact of social norm interventions on proenvironmental behaviors and of several theoretical accounts of the role that social norms play in the decision-making process.Through the use of both laboratory and online experiments (via Amazon Mechanical Turk and the NSF-funded Time-Sharing Experiments for the Social Sciences), the experimental studies that comprise the thesis examine the impact of valence framing on the effectiveness of a normative intervention, the capacity for a single normative intervention to generate heterogeneous behavioral impacts, and the effectiveness of certain informal norm-enforcement mechanisms and their interaction with formal institutional sanctions. From these studies, we draw a number of policy-relevant implications and identify the need for future work on a number of specific issues related to the role of social norms in behavior and accordingly, to the design of effective behavioral interventions that leverage social norms

Master of Science
Department of Psychological Sciences
Laura A. Brannon
Previous research has repeatedly demonstrated that undergraduate students overrate others’ norm comfort with and consumption of alcohol (i.e., Prentice & Miller, 1993). This is a dangerous misperception, as students are increasing their personal alcohol intake and / or frequency in order to match their incorrect perception of how much everyone else is drinking. Already assuming that their peers are more comfortable with, and consume more, alcohol than they do, college students’ perception of norm alcohol use may be influenced by peer comments indicating approval / disapproval of alcohol use. Thus, the present study experimentally tested whether a positive or negative comment in reaction to a portrayal of excessive drinking would influence participants’ perceptions of drinking behavior among their campus peers, and whether the sex of the person making the comment differentially influences participants’ perceptions of each sex’s extent of participation in drinking. Participants’ perceptions of drinking behavior were not influenced by the confederate comment nor confederate sex; however, participants consistently estimated that the drinking norm is higher for males than females. Additionally, female participants perceived the drinking norm to be higher than did male participants. Participants’ ratings of the confederates did differ, however, depending on the comment; participants rated the confederates more favorably when the comment made was negative / criticizing of excessive drinking than when the comment made was positive / endorsing of excessive drinking.

EU’s international role as a normative power can be questioned as the current foreign policy of the Eastern Partnership implies a limit to the union’s ability to democratize. An alignment with EU norms is often seen through a dichotomy of compliance or non-compliance, overlooking other forms of resistance stemming from a nexus of international compliance pressure, and defiance pressure from hybrid regime structures. This applies to Georgia, a pro-EU country in the Eastern Partnership, committed to EU norms while maintaining a skewed playing field in favor of incumbents. Through the application of a theoretical framework developed in memory studies, a range of rhetorical adaptation strategies employed by the ruling party regarding electoral reforms delineates a norm navigation. A qualitative content analysis of statements and events relating to the long-contested electoral system during 2015-2019 shows a variation of strategies used, pointing in a direction of increased pressure to align with prescribed EU norms. Whether EU or domestic political forces can be credited is difficult to determine, yet the nuances of norm resistance are important to analytically separate from overarching labels, as states’ rhetorical commitments need a critical perspective to better understand the limits to EU’s normative power in the Eastern Partnership.

Submitted in fullfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Research) Macquarie University, Division of Humanities, Dept. of Modern History. 2005.
Thesis (MA)--Macquarie University, Division of Humanities and Social Sciences, Dept. of Modern History, 2005.
Bibliography: p. 268-290.
Introduction -- 1. Norms, interests and humanitarian intervention -- 2. Bosnia and Somalia -- 3. Rwanda -- 4. The Clinton Administration and the Balkan Wars -- Conclusion.
A number of Constructivist and English school scholars have investigated the degree to which humanitarian intervention is allowed and legitimised by international society. In other words, they have examined the nature and strength of a norm permitting humanitarian intervention. It is the contention of this dissertation that another norm of humanitarian intervention - parallel but discrete - has been neglected. It is argued that ideas and beliefs shared by members of international society not only permit intervention but prescribe it in certain circumstances and this has been largely ignored in the literature.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
290 p

The dissertation consists of two essays. In the first essay we compare the performance of Islamic and conventional stock returns in Saudi Arabia in order to determine whether the Saudi market exhibits characteristics that are consistent with segmented markets and investor recognition effects. We sample the daily stock returns of all Saudi firms from September 2002 to 2015 and calculate important measures, including idiosyncratic volatility (Ang et al, 2006), market integration (Pukthuanthong and Roll, 2009), systematic turnover (Loughran and Schultz, 2005), and stock turnover and liquidity (Amihud, 2002). Integration tests report that Islamic stocks are more sensitive to changes in global and local macroeconomic variables than conventional stocks, supporting the hypothesis that the Islamic and conventional stock markets are segmented in Saudi Arabia. In addition, our results show that Islamic stocks have larger number of investors, lower idiosyncratic risk, higher systematic turnover, and more liquid than conventional stocks, which supports the investor recognition hypothesis. Our results provide new evidence on asset pricing in emerging markets, the evolving Islamic financial markets, and the potential impact of other implicit market barriers on global financial markets. In the second essay we examine the effects of shared beliefs and personal preferences of individual investors on their trading and investment decisions. We anticipate that the process of classifying stocks into Shariah compliant (Islamic) and non-shariah compliant (conventional) has an effect on investibility and acceptance of the stock especially by unsophisticated or individual investors. The wide acceptance of Islamic stocks between individual investors promote and facilitate the circulation of firm-specific information between certain groups of investors. Our results indicate that stock classification has an effect on the stock price comovement through increased stock trading correlation between the groups of Islamic investors. The commonality in preferences between Islamic stocks’ holders generate commonality in trading activity and in stock liquidity. We find that classifying a stock as an Islamic stock increases its price comovement with other Islamic stocks and also increases its commonality in liquidity.

Cette thèse analyse l'impact des normes internationales volontaires, publiques comme privées, sur le droit de l'Union européenne. Dans un contexte de mondialisation et d'interdépendance économique croissante, ces normes, qui vont des recommandations et déclarations des organisations internationales aux normes et standards techniques, comme les normes ISO ou les labels de qualité, prolifèrent au niveau international et européen. Adoptés notamment dans le cadre d'un processus de co voire d'autorégulation, qui permet aux acteurs privés d'un secteur d'élaborer les règles qui leur seront appliqués, la multiplication de ces normes et standards volontaires emporte des conséquences particulièrement importantes dans la mise en œuvre des politiques publiques internationales et européennes, et invite à repenser le concept de normativité ou force contraignante
This thesis analyses the impact of international soft norms, public and private, on European law. In a context of globalisation and increasing economic interdependance, these normes, which range from recommendations and declarations from international organisations to technical norms and standards, like ISO norms or quality labels, proliferate at both international and european level. Adopted notably in the framework of co or self regulation, allowing private actors from the concerned sector to elaborate their own rules, the multiplication of these voluntary norms and standards has particularly important consequences in the implementation of international and european public policies, and prompts to rethink the concept of « normativity » and « binding force »

As distributed electronic systems grow to include thousands of components, from grid to peer-to-peer nodes, from (Semantic) Web services to web-apps to computation in the cloud, governance of such systems is becoming a real challenge. Modern approaches ensuring appropriate individual entities' behaviour in distributed systems, which comes from multi-agent systems (MAS) research, use norms (or regulations or policies) and/or communication protocols to express a different layer of desired or undesired states. From the individuals perspective, an agent needs to be able to function in an environment where norms act as behavioural restrictions or guidelines as to what is appropriate, not only for the individual but also for the community. In the literature the concept of norms has been defined from several perspectives: as a rule or standard of behaviour shared by members of a social group, as an authoritative rule or standard by which something is judged, approved or disapproved, as standards of right and wrong, beauty and ugliness, and truth and falsehood, or even as a model of what should exist or be followed, or an average of what currently does exist in some context. Currently there exist in the literature: 1) some treatments that formally connect the deontic aspects of norms with their operationalisation; 2) some treatments that properly distinguish between abstract norms and their (multiple) instantiations at runtime; 3) little work that formalises the operational semantics in a way that ensures flexibility in their translation to actual implementations while ensuring unambiguous interpretations of the norms; 4) little work that is suitable for both institutional-level norm monitoring and individual agent norm-aware reasoning to ensure that both are aligned; 5) few works that explore how the norms may affect the decision making process of an agent when the process includes planning mechanisms at runtime for means-ends reasoning. However, currently there is no work that includes both a formalism and an implementation covering 1-5 altogether. This thesis presents work towards the above five areas. We give a proposal to bridge the gap between a single norm formalisation and the actual mechanisms used for norm-aware planning, in order to create a normative practical reasoning mechanism. One way to do this is by reducing deontic-based norm definitions to temporal logic formulas which, in turn, can be translated into planning operational semantics. Based on these semantics, we create a mechanism to support practical normative reasoning that can be used by agents to produce and evaluate their plans. We construct a norm-oriented agent that takes into consideration operationalised norms during the plan generation phase, using them as guidelines to decide the agents future action path. To make norms influence plan generation, our norm operational semantics is expressed as an extension of the planning domain, acting as a form of temporal restrictions over the trajectories (plans) computed by the planner. We consider two approaches to do so. One implementing the semantics by using planning with constraints through paths and the other by directly translating the norms into domain knowledge to be included into the planning domain. We explore a scenario based on traffic laws in order to demonstrate the usability of our proposal. We also show how our normative frameworks are successfullyintegrated into an existing BDI agent implementation, 2APL. For each approach taken, we present quantitative experimental results and illustrate the opportunities for further research.
La gestión de sistemas electrónicos distribuidos se está convirtiendo en un auténtico reto a medida que dichos sistemas crecen incluyendo múltiples componentes, desde nodos grid a peer-to-peer, servicios de la Web semántica, aplicaciones web o computación en la nube. Los enfoques modernos que aseguran un comportamiento adecuado de las entidades individuales en sistemas distribuidos, y que provienen de la investigación en sistemas multi-agentes (MAS), utilizan normas (o regulaciones o políticas) para expresar un nivel diferente de estados deseados o no deseados. Desde la perspectiva del individuo, un agente necesita poder funcionar en un entorno donde las normas actúen como restricciones o directrices de comportamiento respecto a lo que es apropiado,no únicamente para el individuo sino para la comunidad en su conjunto. En la literatura el concepto de norma se ha definido desde varias perspectivas: como una regla o estándar de comportamiento compartida por los miembros de un grupo social, como estándar de lo correcto o incorrecto, belleza o fealdad, o incluso, como un modelo que debería existir o ser seguido. En la actualidad se pueden encontrar en la literatura: 1) trabajos que conectan formalmente los aspectos deónticos de las normas con su operacionalización; 2) trabajos que distinguen adecuadamente entre normas abstractas y sus (múltiples) instanciaciones en tiempo de ejecución; 3) algún ejemplo que formaliza las semánticas operacionales de manera que se asegura la flexibilidad en su traducción a implementaciones garantizando a su vez interpretaciones no ambiguas de las normas; 4) algún trabajo que se adecúa tanto a la monitorización de normas a nivel institucional como al razonamiento basado en normas a nivel de los agentes individuales y que asegura que ambos están alineados; 5) algún trabajo que explora como las normas pueden afectar al proceso de toma de decisiones de un agente cuando el proceso incluye mecanismos de planificación en tiempo real para un razonamiento medios-fines. Sin embargo, actualmente no existe ningún enfoque que incluya formalismos e implementaciones abordando los 5 puntos al mismo tiempo. La presente tesis propone contribuciones en las cinco áreas mencionadas. Se presenta una propuesta para establecer un enlace entre la formalización de una norma y los mecanismos utilizados en la planificación basada en normas con el objetivo de crear un mecanismo de razonamiento práctico normativo. Una forma de conseguirlo es mediante la reducción de las definiciones de normas basadas en deóntica a fórmulas de lógica temporal que, a su vez, pueden ser traducidas a semánticas operacionales de planificación. Basándose en estas semánticas, se ha creado un mecanismo para dar soporte al razonamiento normativo práctico que puede ser utilizado por los agentes para producir y evaluar sus planes. Se ha construido un agente orientado a normas que tiene en consideración las normas operacionalizadas durante la fase de generación de planes, utilizándolas como directrices para decidir el futuro curso de acción del agente. Nuestras semánticas operacionales de normas se expresan como una extensión del dominio de la planificación, actuando como una forma de restricciones temporales sobre las trayectorias (planes) computadas por el planificador. Se han considerado dos enfoques para realizarlo. Uno, implementando las semánticas utilizando planificación con restricciones a través de caminos y otro, traduciendo directamente las normas en conocimiento del dominio que se incluirá en el dominio de planificación. Se explora un escenario basado en normas de circulación de tráfico para demostrar la usabilidad de nuestra propuesta. Se mostrará también como nuestro marco normativo se integra satisfactoriamente en una implementación existente de agentes BDI, 2APL. Para cada enfoque considerado, se presentan resultados experimentales cuantitativos y se ilustran las oportunidades para futuros trabajos de investigación.
A mesura que els sistemes electrònics distribuïts creixen per incloure milers de components,des de nodes grid a peer-to-peer fins a serveis de la Web semàntica, aplicacions web o computació al núvol, la gestió d’aquests sistemes s’està convertint en un autèntic repte. Els enfocs moderns que asseguren el comportament apropiat de lesentitats individuals en sistemes distribuïts, que prové de la recerca en sistemes multiagents, utilitzen normes (o regulacions o polítiques) i/o protocols de comunicació perexpressar una capa diferent d’estats desitjats o no desitjats. Des de la perspectiva de l’individu, un agent necessita poder funcionar en un entorn on les normes actuïn coma restriccions de comportament o guies respecte al que és apropiat, no només per al individu sinó per a la comunitat.En la literatura el concepte de normes s’ha tractat des de diferents perspectives: com una regla o estàndard de comportament compartida pels membres d’un grup social, com una regla o estàndard autoritari pel qual alguna cosa és jutjada, aprovada o desaprovada,com estàndard del correcte i del incorrecte, bellesa i lletjor, veritat i falsedat, o inclús com un model del que hauria d’existir o ser seguit, o com una mitjana del que actualment existeix en un context donat. Actualment trobem en la literatura:1) alguns tractaments que connecten formalment els aspectes deòntics de les normes amb la seva operacionalització; 2) alguns tractaments que distingeixen adequadament entre normes abstractes i les seves (múltiples) instanciacions en temps real; 3) alguns exemples que formalitzen les semàntiques operacionals de manera que asseguren flexibilitaten la seva traducció a implementacions garantint interpretacions no ambigües de les normes; 4) alguns treballs adequats per a la monitorització de normes a nivell institucional i per al raonament basat en normes en agents individuals assegurant que ambdós estan alineats; 5) alguns treballs que exploren com les normes poden afectar el procés de presa de decisions d’un agent quan el procés inclou mecanismes de planificació en temps real per a raonament mitjans-finalitats. D’altra banda, actualment noexisteix cap enfoc que inclogui formalismes i implementacions cobrint els punts 1-5 a la vegada.Aquesta tesi presenta contribucions en les cinc àrees esmentades. Presentem una proposta per establir un enllaç entre la formalització d’una norma i els mecanismes emprats en la planificació basada en normes per tal de crear un mecanisme de raonament pràctic normatiu. Una manera d’aconseguir-ho és reduint les definicions de normes deòntiques a fórmules de lògica temporal les quals poden ser traduïdes asemàntiques de planificació operacional. Basant-nos en aquestes semàntiques, hem creat un mecanisme per donar suport al raonament normatiu pràctic que pot ser emprat per agents per produir i avaluar els seus plans. Hem construït un agent orientat a normes que pren en consideració durant la fase de generació de plans les normes operacionalitzades, utilitzant-les com a guia per decidir el futur curs d’acció de l’agent.Per tal de fer que les normes influenciïn la generació de plans, les nostres semàntiques operacionals de normes s’expressen com una extensió del domini de la planificació,actuant com una mena de restriccions temporals sobre les trajectòries (plans) computadespel planificador. Considerem dos enfocs per dur-ho a terme. Un implementant les semàntiques emprant planificació amb restriccions per mitjà de camins i l’altre traduint directament les normes en coneixement del domini a ser inclòs en el domini de planificació. Explorem un escenari basat en les normes de circulació de tràfic per demostrar la usabilitat de la nostra proposta. Mostrarem també com el nostre marc normatiu s’integra satisfactòriament en una implementació existent d’agentBDI, 2APL. Per cada enfoc considerat, presentem resultats experimentals quantitatius i il.lustrem les oportunitats per treballs de recerca futurs.

Multi-agent organisations can use norms to regulate agent behaviour without strict regimentation. These norms are designed to encourage behaviour that facilitates cooperation and improves organisational performance, while discouraging undesirable behaviour. However, in a dynamic environment, behaviour which was once desirable may become undesirable and vice versa, thus changing the impact a norm has upon organisational performance. In order to ensure that norms remain congruent to organisational goals, their impact must be monitored over time, and, if found to be inadequate, new norms must be selected to replace them. We address the problem of quantifying and monitoring norm impact using a simulation approach: we simulate organisational activity both with and without the norm of interest in order to estimate its effect. In order to reduce the monitoring effort we also propose a mechanism for deciding which sets of norms to monitor based upon the impact magnitude and sensitivity to environmental change. We present a method for generating new norms via genetic programming in order to replace ineffective norms with more effective ones. Changing organisational norms during run-time can cause disruption as agents may need to abandon their ongoing work to accommodate new norms. We provide a mechanism to reduce this disruption by taking into account agent activity when choosing when to change norms. In addition, we propose a method to use the quantification of norm impact to decrease the risk of allowing external agents of unknown trustworthiness to play organisational roles.

A number of international humanitarian organizations focus on human development and aim to improve the situation of children. In many developing countries, states have not been able to fulfill the educational or basic needs of its children. To fill this void, international actors have stepped in to help with human development. This thesis focuses on answering the question: How are norms diffused to local communities? Looking at the implementation of human development norms, this paper examines the norms-based actions that NGOs take to maximize the development potential of children. Programs aimed at increasing basic education as well as fighting child labor are addressed. When exploring the norm socialization process NGOs use to promote programs in education and child labor, it is clear that a different process is present than is suggested by existing literature. This is due to the locale where norms are implemented: local communities.

The subject matter of this thesis can be summarized by a triplet of questions and answers. Showing what these questions and answers mean is, in essence, the goal of my project. The triplet goes like this: Q: How can we make progress in our understanding of social norms and norm compliance? A: Adopting a neurocomputational framework is one effective way to make progress in our understanding of social norms and norm compliance. Q: What could the neurocomputational mechanism of social norm compliance be? A: The mechanism of norm compliance probably consists of Bayesian - Reinforcement Learning algorithms implemented by activity in certain neural populations. Q: What could information about this mechanism tell us about social norms and social norm compliance? A: Information about this mechanism tells us that: a1: Social norms are uncertainty-minimizing devices. a2: Social norm compliance is one trick that agents employ to interact coadaptively and smoothly in their social environment. Most of the existing treatments of norms and norm compliance (e.g. Bicchieri 2006; Binmore 1993; Elster 1989; Gintis 2010; Lewis 1969; Pettit 1990; Sugden 1986; Ullmann‐Margalit 1977) consist in what Cristina Bicchieri (2006) refers to as “rational reconstructions.” A rational reconstruction of the concept of social norm “specifies in which sense one may say that norms are rational, or compliance with a norm is rational” (Ibid., pp. 10-11). What sets my project apart from these types of treatments is that it aims, first and foremost, at providing a description of some core aspects of the mechanism of norm compliance. The single most original idea put forth in my project is to bring an alternative explanatory framework to bear on social norm compliance. This is the framework of computational cognitive neuroscience. The chapters of this thesis describe some ways in which central issues concerning social norms can be fruitfully addressed within a neurocomputational framework. In order to qualify and articulate the triplet above, my strategy consists firstly in laying down the beginnings of a model of the mechanism of norm compliance behaviour, and then zooming in on specific aspects of the model. Such a model, the chapters of this thesis argue, explains apparently important features of the psychology and neuroscience of norm compliance, and helps us to understand the nature of the social norms we live by.

Adolescents from nine intact health classes from two high schools participated either in a traditional lecturebased alcohol prevention intervention or a nontraditional experiential-based intervention. The nontraditional intervention focussed on attitudes toward drinking and the misperceptions associated with alcohol consumption norms. Subjects completed several self-report measures on attitudes toward drinking (own, perceived friends', and perceived school's), perceived ranking of alcohol consumption compared to closest friends and compared to the school, intent to drink, and actual reporting of alcohol consumption. For the nontraditional intervention, it was hypothesized that students would change their perceptions of others' attitudes toward drinking and their perception of the norm enough to decrease their alcohol consumption. Results indicated the intervention changed the perceived attitude of the school, but not enough to significantly change consumption levels. These findings confirm that misperceptions occur and that they influence alcohol consumption.
Department of Psychological Science

We study norms that can be used as penalties in machine learning problems. In particular, we consider norms that are defined by an optimal interpolation problem and whose additional structure can be used to encourage specific characteristics, such as sparsity, in the solution to a learning problem. We first study a norm that is defined as an infimum of quadratics parameterized over a convex set. We show that this formulation includes the k-support norm for sparse vector learning, and its Moreau envelope, the box-norm. These extend naturally to spectral regularizers for matrices, and we introduce the spectral k-support norm and spectral box-norm. We study their properties and we apply the penalties to low rank matrix and multitask learning problems. We next introduce two generalizations of the k-support norm. The first of these is the (k, p)-support norm. In the matrix setting, the additional parameter p allows us to better learn the curvature of the spectrum of the underlying solution. A second application is to multilinear algebra. By considering the rank of its matricizations, we obtain a k-support norm that can be applied to learn a low rank tensor. For each of these norms we provide an optimization method to solve the underlying learning problem, and we present numerical experiments. Finally, we present a general framework for optimal interpolation norms. We focus on a specific formulation that involves an infimal convolution coupled with a linear operator, and which captures several of the penalties discussed in this thesis. Finally we introduce an algorithm to solve regularization problems with norms of this type, and we provide numerical experiments to illustrate the method.

Duelling The norm of duelling endured for hundreds of years in Europe. In the United Kingdom it disappeared abruptly in the mid-nineteenth century, whereas in France it declined slowly. I present a simple model of social norms that explains these phenomena. The model predicts that the evolution of norms is characterised by tipping, whereby norms can shift suddenly due to shocks, and by a ratchet effect, whereby changes in parameters can cause norms to decline gradually. I show that the model can be supported by an equilibrium of a repeated game, with no special assumptions about preferences. Community enforcement using modal actions I prove two folk theorems for repeated games with random matching. A large group of players is rematched at random each period, so that players who deviate must be sanctioned by third parties. Previous analyses have either relied on strong assumptions about information transmission, or have been limited to equilibria that are not robust to noise or in which players are indifferent. I use a simple construction based on modal actions to obtain results for strict and robust equilibria. Learning repeated-game strategies The literature on boundedly rational learning has tended to focus on stagegame actions. I present a stochastic learning rule for repeated-game strategies. Players form beliefs about their opponent’s strategy based on past actions and best-respond. Occasionally, they make mistakes and experiment, and I show that the equilibrium selected depends on exactly how players make mistakes. Simple specifications of the learning rule yield intuitive selection results: the maxmin, or Rawlsian, outcome; the Nash bargaining solution; the maximum of the sum of payoffs; and a generalisation of risk dominance.

This dissertation presents three projects within the fields of behavioural and experimental economics. The first consists of a meta-analysis of lab experiments measuring economic discrimination. Most importantly, I find that the strength of discrimination in economics experiments varies depending on the dimension of identity across which discrimination is measured, and depending on the type of game used to measure it. The second project investigates the relationship between discriminatory behaviour and social norms. A lab experiments finds that discrimination is stronger when it is perceived to be more socially appropriate. In the third project, a field experiment investigates the effect of different nudges on voter registration rates. In particular, emphasising the possibility of being fined for failing to register is successful in raising registration rates, but offering the possibility of financial gain for registering is not. An online experiment in the same project suggests the conflicting normative effects of the two nudges may help explain these differences.

This thesis presents the results of my doctoral studies at Middlesex University London. It contains different papers related to Labour Markets and presents some results on production, delegation and dishonest behaviour. The first study compares how group size interacts with both constrained and un-constrained resource environments, finding that resource limitations diminish production over time and that all the groups learn with experience. The second explores the effects of incentives in dishonest behaviour in both the gain and loss domain finding that contrary to theoretical predictions, subjects do not cheat more when they are facing a loss. The third, studies the distributions derived from different delegation scenarios. We find that the distributions derived from optional delegation are more egalitarian than the ones made under compulsory delegation. Finally, I study gender differences in delegation finding that gender biases only arise in compulsory delegation, and not under endogenous delegation, and at an agent level.

This thesis is primarily concerned with correlation inequalities between the number of homomorphic copies of different graphs. In particular, many of the results relate to a beautiful conjecture of Sidorenko, which roughly states that the number of copies of a bipartite graph H in a graph G is asymptotically minimised when G is the Erdos Reyni random graph. The first part of the thesis discusses recent approaches to attack Sidorenko's conjecture. We firstly prove that every graph that admits a special kind of tree decomposition satisfies the conjecture. The proof explicitly uses information theory, which also leads to a general tool for counting fixed graphs that are decomposable in analogous ways. A recursive approach to the conjecture, using Cartesian products of graphs, will also be discussed. We show that the class of graphs that satisfy the conjecture is closed under taking Cartesian products with either trees or even cycles. The second part studies a conjecture of Kohayakawa, Nagle, Rodl, and Schacht, which states that we have a random-like lower count for any graph H in G whenever G is locally dense, i.e., a fixed edge density is guaranteed for every large enough vertex subset. This conjecture is closely related to Sidorenko's conjecture in the sense that it is true for every bipartite graph H that satisfies Sidorenko's conjecture. We prove a partial converse, stating that if H satisfies the Kohayakawa-Nagle-Rodl-Schacht conjecture, then replacing edges of H by internally disjoint paths of length two gives an instance of Sidorenko's conjecture. We also prove some new instances of the Kohayakawa-Nagle-Rodl-Schacht conjecture by adding extra ideas to the information theoretic approach previously discussed.

Individual variability in engagement in gendered behavior is primarily assumed to be the result of variability in gender roles (i.e., femininity, masculinity; Bem, 1981). However, contextual factors have also been shown to influence behaving in gendered ways (Leszczynski & Strough, 2008; Pickard & Strough, 2003). The current studies sought to explore engagement in gendered behaviors by examining the influence of social norms on gendered behaviors, as well as how those perceptions interact with gender self-concepts (i.e., gendered contingencies of selfworth, self-efficacy for behaving in gendered ways, similarity to others of one's sex) to influence engagement in gendered behaviors. Two studies were conducted in which participant behavior was measured by having them complete tasks with ambiguous gender stereotypes associated with them: pain threshold and endurance. The norms were presented through direct feedback in Study 1 and through behavioral modeling from confederates in Study 2. Each study also examined the moderating effect of gender self-concepts: gendered contingencies of selfworth, self-efficacy for behaving in gendered ways, and similarity to others of one's sex. In study 1, sex differences were found such that men who were told that their sex was superior evidenced elevated pain threshold when compared to men who were not given any gender specific information. Furthermore, similarity to others of one's sex moderated the association. In study 2, direct tests of the effect of presented norms on groups were not found to be significant. However, when controlling for each of the gender self-concepts, individuals who had same-sex superiority demonstrated had significantly higher pain threshold than those who had observed same-sex confederates demonstrating inferior pain threshold and endurance. Additionally, individuals with higher levels of gender self-efficacy were more likely to have the gendered information impact their behavior than individuals with low levels of gender self-efficacy. Overall, social norms were found to have an impact on individuals' engagement in gendered behaviors, although individual personality factors moderated those relationships. The current work shines a light on how gender norms can both heighten or diminish engagement in gendered behaviors, and underscores the need to examine individual differences when exploring the impact of contextual norms.

This thesis is a collection of experimental and theoretical studies on social norms and cooperation. The first two chapters focus on effects of social norms on people's behaviour in strategic situations. The Golden Rule is first studied in an ultimatum bargaining experiment. The results show that while most people follow the Golden Rule in the ultimatum game situation, experience and feedback of playing the opposite role has an important effect on golden-rule behaviour. Then the link between people's expectation of social norms and their own behaviour is studied in an experiment of a trust game. Only about half of the subjects show a consistent behaviour according to their own expected norm. Moreover, experience and feedback has asymmetric effects on the behaviour of trustors and trustees. In next two chapters, the way people cooperate and how to sustain a more efficient cooperative result are studied by using both theoretical and experimental methods. I first experimentally explore the mechanisms that make people more willing to cooperate and increase the overall welfare in a public goods game. Then I theoretically study a well-established cooperative solution for the bankruptcy problem and design a non-cooperative game that gives the solution as the unique sub-game perfect equilibrium outcome.

This dissertation examines the conceptualization, promotion and diffusion of the norm of population control at international and domestic levels, as well as adoption and implementation in Egypt. It also offers a critique of mainstream constructivism, an increasingly popular analytical approach to norm diffusion. Constructivists present convincing evidence that nonstate actors change state preferences through the promotion and diffusion of norms, or "shared expectations about appropriate behavior held by a community of actors" (Finnemore 1996, 22). To emphasize the independent influence of social factors, and to downplay material factors, however, constructivists select cases in which norm diffusion occurred before state sponsorship. Constructivist research answers the question, 'How are norms diffused in the absence of material constraint?' Aside from its censorship of material factors, additional constructivist shortcomings include its proclivity for examining only liberal or progressive norms, and its inattention to domestic political process and elites' broader decision-making options. This dissertation demonstrates that diffusion of the norm of population control depended on a combination of material and social factors related to an alliance among strange bedfellows, namely the United States and allied donors and INGOs, UN agencies, populationist and liberal feminist NGOs, and international financial institutions. In this case, the 'norm cascade' of formal state adoptions of population control followed formal social and material support by the United States and, subsequently, the United Nations. This research seeks to demonstrate that relationships of social and material inequality strongly condition the norms that are selected or rejected by international society and states, and the ways in which opponents conceptualize and mobilize for change. The case of population control suggests interesting answers to a different question, namely: How and why are certain international norms, and not others, successfully promoted, diffused and adopted by states? This dissertation also examines the mechanics of norm mutation, or efforts by the international women's health movement to substitute the original population control paradigm, family planning, with the new reproductive health paradigm. This new paradigm was adopted at the 1994 UN International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD), and the final chapter examines the current prospects for paradigm change in Egypt.

The pioneers and settlers of the Oregon Territory were not of one ilk. They came from various places and brought their separate speech patterns with them. This study sought to identify which major North American English dialect was present in the first half of the 20th century in Oregon. Analysis relied on the descriptions for the Southern, Northern, Midlands, and Western dialects. Some dialect features have acoustic measurements attached to their descriptions, and others do not. The analytical process was based on acoustic measurements for vowel classes and individual tokens, as well as global observations about the place of a particular class means within the larger vowel system. Findings indicate weak presence of Southern and Western speech patterns. The Northern and Midlands dialects were present, but they were not advanced. No single dialect predominated. Part of the process attempted to find a dialect diagnosis to help determine a one-step indicator as to which dialect may be present. Observations implied that the front/back relation of /e/ and /o/ is a reliable dialect indicator.

In this thesis, I explore answers to three central questions: (i) what are beliefs, (ii) why do we have them, and (iii) how should we interpret doxastic correctness, the principle that it is correct to believe that p if and only if p? The first question has a long history in philosophy of mind, and in various forms can be dated at least as far back as David Hume. For that reason, I refer to the problem as Hume’s Problem. As I interpret the question, the main difficulty with accounting for what beliefs are, is in distinguishing them from forms of acceptance, where acceptances are understood as regarding-as-true attitudes—these include assuming, supposing, guessing, and (propositional) imagining. I take this technical use of ‘acceptance’ from Velleman (2000). The second question I interpret as a biological question about why we, as organisms with beliefs, have beliefs. Answering this question depends on how we answer the first question, in the sense that, in explaining why we have beliefs, we are explaining why we have an attitude that meets the conditions that we set for beliefs to meet. And the third question is largely about the important relation between belief and truth; why is it that, as believers, we emphasise the apparent platitude that a belief is correct if and only if it is true? To address these questions, I consider three different theoretical approaches to understanding beliefs. Specifically, I discuss teleological theories, normative theories, and a functional theory. For various reasons, I argue that teleological accounts fail to provide satisfactory answers to the three central questions (Part I); that normative accounts also fail to answer our central questions (Part II); but that a functional account, appropriately understood, can provide answers to these questions (Part III). In particular, I argue for what I call the doxastic effects thesis, which defines belief according to the effects beliefs have (or their outputs); and I propose that we interpret the components of this thesis as functional statements. The doxastic effects thesis allows us to answer Hume’s Problem, by proposing necessary and sufficient conditions for beliefs to meet; and interpreting these conditions as functions allows us to explain, at least in part, why we have beliefs. Concerning doxastic correctness, I argue that our commitment to the principle has arisen as a social construct, and therefore should be given (what I call) a thin reading; as opposed to the substantive reading that we get on the teleological and normative accounts, such that doxastic correctness states an essential fact about belief. Finally, in Part IV, I extend the first question, what beliefs are, to a third doxastic attitude. Namely, suspended belief (suspension). I argue that one further advantage of my functional theory of belief is that it can account for suspension as a doxastic attitude, unlike the teleological and normative alternatives.