Bicchieri, Cristina

Disciplines

Philosophy
Psychology
Social and Behavioral Sciences

Position

Faculty Member

Introduction

My intellectual affinities lie at the border between philosophy, game theory and psychology. My primary research focus is on judgment and decision making with special interest in decisions about fairness, trust, and cooperation, and how expectations affect behavior. A second research focus examines the evolution of social norms, especially norms of fairness and cooperation. A third, earlier research focus has been the epistemic foundations of game theory and how changes in information affects rational choices and solutions. 1. In my most recent work, I have designed behavioral experiments aimed at testing several hypotheses based on the theory of social norms that I developed in my recent book, The Grammar of Society

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 23

Third-Party Sanctioning and Compensation Behavior: Findings From the Ultimatum Game
(2013-12-01) Chavez, Alex K; Bicchieri, Cristina
We measured the beliefs and behavior of third parties who were given the opportunity to add to or deduct from the payoffs of individuals who engaged in an economic bargaining game under different social contexts. Third parties rewarded bargaining outcomes that were equal and compensated victims of unfair bargaining outcomes rather than punishing perpetrators, but were willing to punish when compensation was not an available option. Beliefs of whether unequal bargaining outcomes were fair differed based on the normative context, but actual punishment, compensation, and rewarding behavior did not. This paper makes a contribution to the literature on informal mechanisms of social norm enforcement by comparing negative sanctions, positive sanctions, and compensation behavior by third parties.
Norm Manipulation, Norm Evasion: Experimental Evidence
(2013-01-01) Bicchieri, Cristina; Chavez, Alex K
Using an economic bargaining game, we tested for the existence of two phenomena related to social norms, namely norm manipulation – the selection of an interpretation of the norm that best suits an individual – and norm evasion – the deliberate, private violation of a social norm. We found that the manipulation of a norm of fairness was characterized by a self-serving bias in beliefs about what constituted normatively acceptable behaviour, so that an individual who made an uneven bargaining offer not only genuinely believed it was fair, but also believed that recipients found it fair, even though recipients of the offer considered it to be unfair. In contrast, norm evasion operated as a highly explicit process. When they could do so without the recipient's knowledge, individuals made uneven offers despite knowing that their behaviour was unfair.
The Rules We Live By
(2006-01-01) Bicchieri, Cristina
In The Grammar of Society, first published in 2006, Cristina Bicchieri examines social norms, such as fairness, cooperation, and reciprocity, in an effort to understand their nature and dynamics, the expectations that they generate, and how they evolve and change. Drawing on several intellectual traditions and methods, including those of social psychology, experimental economics and evolutionary game theory, Bicchieri provides an integrated account of how social norms emerge, why and when we follow them, and the situations where we are most likely to focus on relevant norms. Examining the existence and survival of inefficient norms, she demonstrates how norms evolve in ways that depend upon the psychological dispositions of the individual and how such dispositions may impair social efficiency. By contrast, she also shows how certain psychological propensities may naturally lead individuals to evolve fairness norms that closely resemble those we follow in most modern societies.
Why Do People Do What They Do? A Social Norms Manual for Viet Nam, Indonesia and the Philippines
(2016-01-01) Bicchieri, Cristina
The content for this manual was developed thanks to Cristina Bicchieri, Thomas Noah and Ryan Muldoon for a training course on social norms and as part of the Multi Country Study on the Drivers of Violence. The ideas and concepts providing the foundation of the course teachings are from Cristina Bicchieri's Norms in the Wild: how to diagnose, measure and change social norms, Oxford University Press, 2016 and her Penn-UNICEF Lectures on Norms and Social Change, 2010-2015. The manual is available on UNICEF's website here: https://www.unicef-irc.org/research/pdf/442-EAPROmanual04.pdf
Norms of Cooperation
(1990-07-01) Bicchieri, Cristina
Sector Sustainability Check: Rural Open Defecation Free (ODF) & Rural (Drinking) Water Supply Schemes (RWSS) Punjab & Sindh Provinces
(2016-12-01) Bicchieri, Cristina; Thulin, Erik; Marini, Annalisa; Haider, Nadeem; Gill, Asmat; Usmani, Aziz; Shahzad, Faisal; Dastageer, Ghulam; Kamal, Reema; Badr-un-Nisa,; Gillani, Noor; Jalal, Sher; Abbas, Faisal; Khan, Sher; Khan, Saud; Khanzada, Noman
This study focused on the behavioral sustainability of latrine use and continued functionality of rural water supply systems in ODF certified villages in the Sindh and Punjab provinces of Pakistan. Our chief role was to develop, integrate and analyze social norms measures as part of the larger sustainability check. This report presents those methods, measures and findings. PennSONG served as an associate partner in the report, working with lead partner AAN Associates (www.aanassociates.com) and associate partner Institute of Environmental Sciences and Engineering (iese.nuse.edu.pk). The study was substantially supported by the Ministry of Climate Change (MOCC), the Government of Pakistan, and UNICEF Pakistan.
Do the Right Thing: But Only If Others Do So
(2009-04-01) Bicchieri, Cristina; Xiao, Erte
Social norms play an important role in individual decision making. We argue that two different expectations influence our choice to obey a norm: what we expect others to do (empirical expectations) and what we believe others think we ought to do (normative expectations). Little is known about the relative importance of these two types of expectation in individuals' decisions, an issue that is particularly important when normative and empirical expectations are in conflict (e.g., systemic corruption, high crime cities). In this paper, we report data from Dictator game experiments where we exogenously manipulate dictators' expectations in the direction of either selfishness or fairness. When normative and empirical expectations are in conflict, we find that empirical expectations about other dictators' choices significantly predict a dictator's own choice. However, dictators' expectations regarding what other dictators think ought to be done do not have a significant impact on their decisions after controlling for empirical expectations. Our findings about the crucial influence of empirical expectations are important for designing institutions or policies aimed at discouraging undesirable behavior.
Phase 1 Project Report. Social Networks and Norms: Sanitation in Bihar and Tamil Nadu, India
(2017-12-31) Bicchieri, Cristina; Ashraf, Sania; Das, Upasak; Kohler, Hans-Peter; Kuang, Jinyi; McNally, Peter; Shpenev, Alexey; Thulin, Erik
Is Participation Contagious? Evidence From a Household Vector Control Campaign in Urban Peru
(2013-09-23) Buttenheim, Alison; Paz-Soldan, Valerie; Barbu, Corentin M; Skovira, Christine; Quintanilla Calderón, Javier E; Small, Dylan; Mollesaca Riveros, Lina Margot; Bicchieri, Cristina; Oswaldo Cornejo, Juan; Levy, Michael Z; Naquira, Cesar
Objective: High rates of household participation are critical to the success of door-to-door vector control campaigns. We used the Health Belief Model to assess determinants of participation, including neighbour participation as a cue to action, in a Chagas disease vector control campaign in Peru. Methods: We evaluated clustering of participation among neighbours; estimated participation as a function of household infestation status, neighbourhood type and number of participating neighbours; and described the reported reasons for refusal to participate in a district of 2911 households. Results: We observed significant clustering of participation along city blocks (p<0.0001). Participation was significantly higher for households in new versus established neighbourhoods, for infested households, and for households with more participating neighbours. The effect of neighbour participation was greater in new neighbourhoods. Conclusions: Results support a ‘contagion’ model of participation, highlighting the possibility that one or two participating households can tip a block towards full participation. Future campaigns can leverage these findings by making participation more visible, by addressing stigma associated with spraying, and by employing group incentives to spray.
A Structured Approach to a Diagnostic of Collective Practices
(2014-12-05) Bicchieri, Cristina; Lindemans, Jan W; Jiang, Ting
“How social norms change” is not only a theoretical question but also an empirical one. Many organizations have implemented programs to abandon harmful social norms. These programs are standardly monitored and evaluated with a set of empirical tools. While monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of changes in objective outcomes and behaviors is well developed, we will argue that M&E of changes in the wide range of beliefs and preferences important to social norms is still problematic. In this paper, we first present a theoretical framework and then show how it should guide social norms measurement. As a case study, we focus on the harmful practice of child marriage. We show how an operational theory of social norms can guide the design of surveys, experiments, and vignettes. We use examples from existing research to illustrate how to study social norms change.