Fear of retaliation: Why we tend not to enforce social norms
Wednesday, November 2, 2016 - 09:31
in Psychology & Sociology
When bystanders become witnesses of a social norm violation, they will confront the culprit - all the more if the violation is severe. Although this appears to make sense, in fact the opposite is true. The more severe the norm violation, the more reluctant people will be to reprimand the person who committed it. Their fear of retaliation is too great.