Decisions and Social Norms

This pathbreaking book casts new light on how to handle life’s most difficult decisions. Edna Ullmann-Margalit and Cass R. Sunstein examine the role of social norms in creating both stability and instability, while offering an in-depth exploration of why people choose not to choose.Ullmann-Margalit and Sunstein evaluate the identifiable strategies people use when confronted with difficult problems, such as delegating, adhering to firm rules, adopting presumptions, and taking small, reversible steps. They emphasise the importance of norms of considerateness in maintaining social cohesion, highlighting the positive impact of personal sacrifice in both work and family environments. The authors also investigate how norms influence consumer choices, and how purchasing habits can reveal a desire for solidarity and commonality. Ullmann-Margalit and Sunstein address the effect of norms on inequality, analysing the contagious nature of indignation, which often leads to large-scale societal changes, such as the movement for equality between men and women.Decisions and Social Norms is essential reading for scholars and students of philosophy, economics, behavioral science and psychology. Providing insights on decision-making in political, legal and commercial spheres, this book is also invaluable to policymakers and practitioners in political science, law and business.

The late Edna Ullmann-Margalit, Professor of Philosophy, and Director, the Center for the Study of Rationality, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel and Cass R. Sunstein, Robert Walmsley University Professor and Director of the Program on Behavioral Economics and Public Policy, Harvard Law School, Harvard University, USA