Learning Program on
Advances in Social Norms and Social Change
University of Pennsylvania, Summer 2012
Course directors: Cristina Bicchieri and Gerry Mackie
Course facilitators: Ryan Muldoon (Lead facilitator), Chris Melenovsky, Rob Willison,
Nicolas Baumard, Molly Sinderbrand, Allegra Giovine
Resource UNICEF staff: Francesca Moneti
Course Schedule
Plenary sessions will be moderated by one of the facilitators, in rotation.
First week
Monday July 2: Introduction (Plenary) – 419 Fisher-Bennett Hall, 3340 Walnut Street
8:30-9: Please meet at Fisher-Bennett Hall, 3340 Walnut Street. Please go inside and upstairs
to room 419. Please note that the main stairwell does not go the whole way up to the fourth
floor. There is a stairwell to the right of the main stairwell, behind a door, that goes the whole
way to the fourth floor. The elevator also goes the whole way to the 4th floor.
At this time, for those of you not staying in campus housing, Sarah will give you your ID Cards
as well as information about how to access the internet. Those of you staying in campus housing
will receive your ID card and information about accessing the internet when you check in to the
dorms. It is a good idea to keep your ID card with you while you are at Penn as you will need it
to enter the library, your dorm building (if you are staying on campus) and the building where we
are having our sessions, on the 4th of July.
At that time, Sarah will also give you your name tags, copies of the day's readings and other
logistical information. Please make sure you have your computers and/or other electronic
devices with which you would like to access Penn’s wireless internet. At 11:45, directly after the
plenary session our IT person will assist you with setting up your internet access if you have not
done so or if you have had problems doing so.
At 10:30, daily, there will be a break where coffee, tea, and light refreshments will be available.
If you need coffee or tea before then, there is a Starbucks Coffee shop at 3401 Walnut,
diagonally across the street from Fisher-Bennett Hall.
9-10: Francesca Moneti - Introduction of the program and brief overview of range of
participants. Brief discussion of the relevance of the social norms perspective to
development problems and to the human-rights based approach to development, including
the dimensions of equity and sustainability. Reference will be made to the applicability of
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this perspective across the UNICEF country programme at all phases: from situation
analysis to design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
10-11:45: Cristina Bicchieri - The course will be outlined, and what participants may
expect from the program will be reviewed in detail. The development of the programme
experience brought by each participant into a full case study through the application of
course materials will be explained and participants will be encouraged to identify
similarities and differences in case studies analyzed in their groups. The typical day will
involve a plenary lecture in the morning with limited discussion; and small discussion
groups in the afternoon allowing for close instruction, intense discussion, and application
of material to case studies; Bicchieri, Mackie, and resource UNICEF staff will regularly visit
and participate in afternoon discussion session. Co-Directors and facilitators will be
introduced. Facilitators will briefly gather their group so that participants can introduce
themselves and the case studies they are planning to develop.
11:45-12:15: Please stay in the same room as the plenary session and have with you your
computers or other electronic devices with which you would like to access Penn’s wireless
internet. Our IT person will assist everyone in setting up internet access on your computers
and electronic devices.
Monday afternoon: Social Norms (Plenary) – 419 Fisher-Bennett Hall
2-5: Cristina Bicchieri - We begin with examples of two collective behaviors, and highlight
some structural similarities. We will stress the importance of understanding the reasons
why people engage in such practices. Many of them are strongly interdependent: we shall
examine what sort of preferences and collective beliefs support this interdependence.
There are two types of collective beliefs that may be involved: empirical (what others do)
and normative (what others approve/disapprove). If there is interdependence, individuals’
preferences are conditional on mutual expectations. Changing expectations will thus
induce behavioral changes. Expectations and preferences are individually necessary and
jointly sufficient for a social norm to exist. Since different people may enact an identical
practice for very different reasons, the same practice may be a social norm in one context
and a simple custom without normative content in another. Introduce diagnostic schema
that helps identify social norms. The diagnostics is important because the design of a
programme aiming to address social norms will be different from one that aims to address
simple customs. Measurement of social norms will be introduced noting that the tools
needed for measuring the presence and change of independent and interdependent
practices will not be the same.
5-5:30: Safety Presentation. Please stay in same room.
Tuesday July 3: Norm change, norm building (Plenary) – 401 Fisher-Bennett Hall
9-12: Cristina Bicchieri - Look again at diagnostics schema. What do we really know about
people’s expectations? How do we elicit them? There are many ways. One of them is
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through questions in surveys or in focus groups that inquire about second-order
expectations. 1. Beware of difference between personal normative beliefs and second-order
beliefs. 2. Incentivize second-order belief accuracy. 3. Introduce scenarios of violations and
ask what would follow. Once we assess beliefs, how shall we act? Norm change vs. norm
building. Two different schemas will be used to illustrate how to approach such changes:
examples of both cases (child marriage, CATS). What if people support a social norm they
dislike: pluralistic ignorance.
Tuesday afternoon (Group session) – See room schedule for group locations
2-5: Participants will go to their first discussion sessions, each led by a facilitator, where
they will consolidate this knowledge and further apply it to their own personal and
development examples. They will be asked to identify first and second-order beliefs and
expectations in their case studies, and think of questions they would ask to their subjects to
elicit these.
6-8: Opening Reception. Each participant will introduce himself to others, followed by
informal exchanges. This will be held outside room 311 in Cohen Hall, 249 South 36th St.
Wednesday July 4: How to change empirical expectations (Plenary) – 419 FisherBennett Hall
9-12: Gerry Mackie - How to mobilize a small core group that over time brings about
changes in beliefs and in reciprocal expectations throughout a whole community,
illustrated by FGM/C abandonment. Mackie will explain how an initial change in personal
beliefs about a certain practice can occur. No significant change will follow unless the
participants are convinced that others have also changed their beliefs and will act
accordingly. The process will be intuitively illustrated with role play, and by film clips.
Concepts of core group, reevaluation of alternatives, trust generation, coordinated shift of
reciprocal expectations by public manifestations (by declarations, oaths or otherwise),
tipping point and organized diffusion will be introduced in narrative form, and illustrated
by reference to effective FGM/C abandonment programs and other UNICEF development
experiences. The use of innovations in communication technology to stimulate discussion
at large scale will be introduced. The importance of social rules for sustainable progress
will be discussed.
Wednesday afternoon (Group session) – See room schedule for group locations
2-5: Teaching assistants will review the material and encourage group questions and
discussion. Participants will describe dynamics of organized norm change in their own
personal and field experiences. They will examine their case study, and hypothesize how to
form a core group, revalue alternatives, organize diffusion of changed attitudes, and
effectively coordinate shift of reciprocal expectations.
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5-6 Office Hours
Cristina Bicchieri
Thursday July 5: How to create empirical expectations (Plenary) – 419 Fisher-Bennett
Hall
9-12: Therese Dooley - How to create a new norm. The case of community approaches to
total sanitation (CATS). Sustainability of change through development of new mutual
expectations. Tools for monitoring changes of empirical and normative expectations will be
discussed.
Thursday afternoon (Group session) – See room schedule for group locations
2-5: Participants will be asked to relate the material to their case studies, and identify how
to create, if relevant, new expectations in their particular cases.
5-6 Office Hours
Gerry Mackie
Friday July 6: Large scale applications (Plenary) – 419 Fisher-Bennett Hall
9-12: Javier Guillot - Researcher and consultant at Corpovisionarios, a not-for-profit
NGO based in Bogotá (Colombia), created to investigate and foster positive collective
changes with a social-norms-based approach. Corpovisionarios was founded by Antanas
Mockus, former mayor of Bogotá, whose unconventional policies and social norm changeinspired strategies led to major improvements in the city. This session will further
illustrate and summarize prior course concepts with strong and effective field experiences.
It will include a presentation of the major theoretical and practical results of Mockus's
experience in Bogotá, and a description of their successful application in more recent field
projects in Colombia and Latin America. The discussion will focus on how expectations
were changed and trust/common knowledge obtained, highlighting policy innovations and
the characteristics that make them effective in changing or creating social norms.
Friday afternoon (Group session) – See room schedule for group locations
2-5: Participants will be asked to relate the week material to their case studies, and discuss
how to enact a change in expectations in their particular cases.
5-6 Office Hours
Gerry Mackie
Second week
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Monday July 9: Social and Legal Norms and Sanctions (Plenary) – 419 Fisher-Bennett
Hall
9-12: Erte Xiao - How the legal system can hinder or promote social norms change and
how an understanding of existing social norms can help improve the design and the
effectiveness of implementation of legal reforms. Relationships between social norms and
legal norms, of the effects of changes in one on the other. Their respective type of sanctions
will also be analyzed.
Monday afternoon (Group session) – See room schedule for group locations
2-5: Facilitators will review the material and encourage group questions and discussion.
Participants will also be asked to explore the interplay of legal and moral norms in their
case studies, where legal norms are not limited to legislation and can also include
Ministerial decrees and codes of conduct.
Tuesday July 10: Networks of norms, values and beliefs (Plenary) – 419 FisherBennett Hall
9-12: Hugo Mercier - Are social norms surviving in isolation? Point to network of beliefs,
values and norms. Highlight differences regarding beliefs about ‘nature/reality’ – often
referred to as ‘knowledge’ and beliefs regarding expectations of behavior. Remind of
differences also in their measurement. Schema examples (honor codes). Change easily
peripheral beliefs. How do individuals and groups change their attitudes? The importance
of credibility of message; how credibility is assessed. Obstacles to attitude change:
uniformity of a practice held in place by reciprocal expectations obscures knowledge of,
and evaluation of, better alternatives; a single attitude may be entrenched by its location
within a supporting network of attitudes, and thus the larger network neighborhood must
be engaged; most attitudes are automatic rather than calculated, and it takes deliberative
effort to examine old attitudes and automate new ones. Effects of group deliberation
generally, and in the revision of reciprocal expectations within the reference group. How
community deliberations elicit deeper values to motivate and justify change in more
shallowly valued social practices. Exploration of beliefs and values that may uphold
discriminatory practices and of how greater equity may be pursued by gradual and
sometimes indirect changes.
5-6 Office Hours
Gerry Mackie
Tuesday afternoon (Group session) – See room schedule for group locations
2-5: Participants will be asked to identify the networks of norms, beliefs and values in
their case studies.
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Wednesday July 11: Understanding Social Networks (Plenary) – 419 Fisher-Bennett
Hall
9-12: Ryan Muldoon - Presentation of social networks, social network analysis, and the
flow of persuasion and attitude change in different network topologies. Depending on
the structure of the network, information may flow freely or instead be thwarted, may
spread quickly or slowly, and may be more or less credible. Diagrams of actual social
networks from empirical studies will illustrate concepts. Network analysis guides
identification and mobilization of key individuals and groups in the social network, which
allows for efficient program design.
Wednesday afternoon (Group session) – See room schedule for group locations
2-5: Facilitators will review the material and encourage group questions and discussion.
Students identify different network topologies in their case studies and analyze how
information is transmitted in the network. They will be asked to name who they would
first mobilize in the community they are targeting for assistance.
Thursday July 12
9-12: Participants work on their case studies with individual assistance from facilitators.
Thursday afternoon: Participants Present Case Studies – See room schedule for group
locations
2-5: Facilitators will have sorted participants into four groups (assuming 50 participants),
based on common field problems and other relevant criteria. Each participant will present
her case study in her assigned group. Nonparticipant personnel, including Bicchieri and
Mackie, will serially visit the four groups. (One of the four groups will meet in our regular
plenary room.)
6-8: Closing Reception. This will be held outside room 311 in Cohen Hall, 249 South 36th
St.
Friday July 13: Participants Present Case Studies – See room schedule for group
locations
9-12 and 1-4: Case study presentation, continued.
4-5: (Plenary) UNICEF senior staff will close the session. – 419 Fisher-Bennett Hall