An Interdisciplinary Approach to Rule Compliance [Seed Funding]
The functioning of human societies depends on individuals complying with rules that facilitate social coordination and curb the spreading of disorder, especially when personal interests are at odds with the collective good. To adequately respond to pressing challenges such as climate change and the covid-19 pandemic, governments and organisations must define and communicate behavioural rules that successfully regulate collective action.
This project will shed light on when and why people follow rules. Rule-following is a fundamentally social process: people tend to violate rules more often when they observe others not following them, or comply more when violations are socially disapproved of. Moreover, the joint action of material and social factors may differently impact rule-following in different developmental life phases. Previous work shows that peers can instigate rule-breaking, particularly in adolescence, the formative life stage in which personality takes shape.
In this project, we will experimentally vary a comprehensive set of material and social factors to test how they jointly drive individuals’ rule compliance throughout developmental life stages. We will focus on monetary benefits of rule-breaking, severity and probability of sanctioning violations, normative expectations of relevant other people, the actual behaviour of other participants and the identity of the authority imposing the rule.
Rule-following is a fundamental issue that cross-cuts the natural and social sciences. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of people’s decisions to follow rules, this project integrates multiple disciplinary perspectives, and therefore require the unique combination of expertise of the supervision team: Lucas Molleman holds a PhD in evolutionary biology and did postdocs in behavioural economics and experimental psychology. Jelle Sijtsema holds a PhD in sociology and is an expert on adolescent development and rule-breaking behaviours. Christoph Kogler holds a PhD in psychology and is an expert on the interplay of economic and psychological factors in compliance behaviour.
Research Team
- Lucas Molleman
- Jelle Sijtsema
- Christoph Kogler
Project duration: 2022-2023
Cross-cutting themes
The Herbert Simon Research Institute for Health, Well-being, and Adaptiveness is a research center devoted to carrying out excellent, state of the art research in order to contribute to healthy and resilient people. We have selected three themes, which involve the collaboration between various Departments and address actual themes in need of both fundamental and applied research.