Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/319208 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
CESifo Working Paper No. 11840
Publisher: 
CESifo GmbH, Munich
Abstract: 
Eliciting social norms is essential for understanding a range of behaviors in economic contexts. This paper reviews key experimental approaches to social-norm measurement, comparing the methods, practical considerations, and specific conditions under which each is most effective. We discuss various social norm elicitation techniques, including coordination-based, opinion-based, and distributional approaches. Our findings suggest that coordination-game approaches are the most widely adopted and tested; they deliver robust results, particularly in contexts with a single dominant norm. Importantly, while early methods focused on eliciting mean or modal normative beliefs, recent work shifts focus to eliciting beliefs about the distribution of normative beliefs. This allows the researcher to draw inferences on the degree of uncertainty that underlies norm assessments. This paper aims to help experimentalists and practitioners choose suitable norm-elicitation methods that are aligned with research objectives and logistical constraints.
Subjects: 
methodology
norm elicitation
social norms.
JEL: 
C91
D91
Z13
Document Type: 
Working Paper
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