The Use of Scandals in the Progress of Society
Social conventions and norms can be modeled as equilibria of coordination games. It is argued that the critical mass necessary for a society to move from one convention, that is from one equilibrium, to another changes correspondingly with changes in the population structure due to generation shifts. A scandal is defined as a breach of the accepted norm by prominent persons. When the critical mass necessary for a change in the accepted convention is sufficiently small, a scandal can trigger off such a change since the scandal maker has a certain number of sympathizers who follow her in breaking the accepted norm. The argument is illustrated by several examples from the history of mankind.
Year of publication: |
1999
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Authors: | Holler, Manfred J. ; Wickström, Bengt-Arne |
Published in: |
Homo Oeconomicus. - Institute of SocioEconomics. - Vol. 16.1999, p. 97-110
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Publisher: |
Institute of SocioEconomics |
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