Alle Publikationen
2017
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(2017): Morality and the regulation of social behavior. Groups as moral anchors. Abingdon, United Kingdom: Routledge (European monographs in social psychology)
Abstract: Morality indicates what is the ‘right’ and what is the ‘wrong’ way to behave. It is one of the most popular areas of research in contemporary social psychology, driven in part by recent political-economic crises and the behavioral patterns they exposed. In the past, work on morality tended to highlight individual concerns and moral principles, but more recently researchers have started to address the group context of moral behavior. In Morality and the Regulation of Social Behavior: Groups as Moral Anchors, Naomi Ellemers builds on her extensive research experience to draw together a wide range of insights and findings on morality. She offers an essential integrative summary of the social functions of moral phenomena, examines how social groups contribute to moral values, and explains how groups act as ‘moral anchors’.
Keywords: Gruppe, Gruppennorm, Gruppenverhalten / Joint Action, Konventionen, Moral, moralische Dimension, Moralphilosophie, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Psychologie, Sozialverhalten, Voraussetzungen für sozial angemessenes Verhalten, Zwischenmenschliche Beziehung -
(2017): Ali Baba and the Thief, Convention Emergence in Games. In: Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 20 (3), S. 1-6. DOI: 10.18564/jasss.3421
Abstract: In this paper we propose a model that supports the emergence of conventions via multi-agent learning in social networks. In our model, individual agents repeatedly interact with their neighbours in a game called Ali Baba and the Thief. An agent learns its strategy to play the game using the learning rule imitate-the-best. We show that some conventions prescribing peaceful behaviours can emerge after repeated interactions among agents inhabited in some social networks. Our experiments suggest that there are critical points of convention emergence in Ali Baba and the Thief. When the quotient of the amount of robbery and the initial utility is smaller than the critical point, the probability of convention emergence is high. The probability drops dramatically as long as the quotient is larger than the critical point.
Keywords: Computerspielwissenschaft, Design, Disziplin, Favoriten, Informations- & Kommunikationstechnik, Konventionen, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modelle/Theorien, Norm negotiation model, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Realtechnik, Soziale Angemessenheit, Technik, Voraussetzungen für sozial angemessenes Verhalten -
(2017): Evaluating the Sensitivity to Virtual Characters Facial Asymmetry in Emotion Synthesis. In: Applied Artificial Intelligence 31 (2), S. 103-118. DOI: 10.1080/08839514.2017.1299983
Abstract: The use of expressive Virtual Characters is an effective complementary means of communication for social networks offering multi-user 3D-chatting environment. In such contexts, the facial expression channel offers a rich medium to translate the ongoing emotions conveyed by the text-based exchanges. However, until recently, only purely symmetric facial expressions have been considered for that purpose. In this article we examine human sensitivity to facial asymmetry in the expression of both basic and complex emotions. The rationale for introducing asymmetry in the display of facial expressions stems from two well-established observations in cognitive neuroscience: first that the expression of basic emotions generally displays a small asymmetry, second that more complex emotions such as ambivalent feeling may reflect in the partial display of different, potentially opposite, emotions on each side of the face. A frequent occurrence of this second case results from the conflict between the truly felt emotion and the one that should be displayed due to social conventions. Our main hypothesis is that a much larger expressive and emotional space can only be automatically synthesized by means of facial asymmetry when modeling emotions with a general Valence-Arousal-Dominance dimensional approach. Besides, we want also to explore the general human sensitivity to the introduction of a small degree of asymmetry into the expression of basic emotions. We conducted an experiment by presenting 64 pairs of static facial expressions, one symmetric and one asymmetric, illustrating eight emotions (three basic and five complex ones) alternatively for a male and a female character. Each emotion was presented four times by swapping the symmetric and asymmetric positions and by mirroring the asymmetrical expression. Participants were asked to grade, on a continuous scale, the correctness of each facial expression with respect to a short definition. Results confirm the potential of introducing facial asymmetry for a subset of the complex emotions. Guidelines are proposed for designers of embodied conversational agent and emotionally reflective avatars.
Keywords: Asymmetrie, Augmented & Virtual Reality, Authentizität von dargestellter Emotion, dominance, Emotionserkennung, Gesichtszüge, Gestik/Mimik, Kognitionswissenschaft/Social Sciences/Humanities, Konventionen, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Neurowissenschaften, Realtechnik, soziale Kognition, Technik 2016
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(2016): The Detour of an Obstetric Technology. Active Management of Labor Across Cultures. In: Medical anthropology 35 (1), S. 17-30. DOI: 10.1080/01459740.2015.1091817
DOI: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26484745 Abstract: Active management of labor (AML) is an obstetric technology developed in Ireland in the 1970s to accelerate labor in nulliparous women. This technology achieved rapid success in Great Britain and in English-speaking countries outside America, which adopted it before many other states around the world. In this article, I explore AML's technical and social characteristics when it was first designed, and then examine its local inflections in a Jordanian and a Swiss maternity hospital to shed light on the ways its transnational circulation modifies its script. I argue that its application is shaped by local material constraints and specific sociocultural configurations, gender regimes, and hospital cultures. Finally, I make a comparative analysis of AML practices in these two settings and in the foundational textbook to disentangle the technical and sociocultural components modeling its local applications.
Keywords: Active management of labor (AML), ANTHROPOLOGY, Disziplin, Ethnology, Female, Geburt, Gender, Human Body, Humans, Jordan, Konventionen, Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Kultur, Kulturdifferenz, Kulturspezifizität, Kulturtechnik, Kulturtheorie, Kulturvergleich, labor, Medical, Medizin, Normen, Observablen, Obstetrics, Pregnancy, script, Switzerland, Women -
(2016): The Development of Korean Children’s and Adolescents’ Concepts of Social Convention. In: Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 47 (7), S. 918-928. DOI: 10.1177/0022022116655775
Abstract: Previous research in the United States has revealed that children's and adolescents' understandings of social convention go through a developmental trajectory that includes an early adolescent phase negating the importance of convention. This study examined whether this developmental pattern would generalize to children and adolescents from the more traditional East Asian culture of Korea. Specifically, among U.S. samples, children in middle childhood have an understanding of conventions based on a concrete understanding of social hierarchy; early adolescents negate their prior understandings and view conventions as merely the dictates of authority; and in middle adolescence, U.S. samples establish an affirmation of convention as constituent elements of a social system structured by shared norms. Our hypotheses were that Korean children would not exhibit the negation phase associated with early adolescence and might develop an understanding of the societal function of convention earlier than U.S. samples. To examine this, interviews were conducted using culturally appropriate situations with 64 Korean children and adolescents in three age groups of 10 to 11 years (M-age = 10.1 years), 12 to 13 years (M-age = 13.2 years), and 15 to 16 years (M-age = 15.8 years). Findings revealed that, contrary to our expectations, Korean children go through the same developmental sequence of concepts about convention as observed with children in the United States. This implies that the developmental trajectories of understandings of the functions of social convention can be generalized to children in traditional East Asian cultural settings.
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(2016): when I need/want to. Normativity, identity, and form in user construals of ‘talk-like’ tweeting. In: Discourse, Context & Media 14, S. 54-62. DOI: 10.1016/j.dcm.2016.09.003
Abstract: The focus of this study is on how Twitter users construe talk-like tweeting in metalinguistic utterances. In a material of tweets containing or responding to explicit comparisons of tweeting to talking (N=520), a broad range of construals are identified, showing Twitter users associating talk-likeness with, e.g., notions of the textual representation of voice, of grammatical (in-)correctness, of accurately reflecting one's 'real-life' identity, and of regional or social variation in language use. These associations frequently serve normative functions, enforcing or contesting linguistic and discursive norms in both serious and playful ways. The findings offer a novel perspective on the oft-debated orality of computer-mediated discourse, providing a window on how a process of enregisterment (Agha, 2007) is instantiated and how language norms are actively negotiated by participants in everyday online language use on Twitter.
Keywords: Art des Kommunikationsmediums, Design, Entstehung von Normen, grammatische (In-)Korektheit, Konventionen, metalinguistische Äußerungen, Orality of computer-mediated discourse, social media, textuelle Nachahmung von Stimme, Twitter, Twitter-spezifische textuelle Ausdrucksweise, Variabilität im Sprachgebrauch (in Abweichung von Standardsprache) 2015
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(2015) : Social Driving in Connected Car Environment In: VDE: Proceedings of European Wireless 2015; 21th European Wireless Conference: Frankfurt am Main, Germany: VDE, S. 1-6. Online verfügbar unter https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7147682/
Abstract: Considering how the number of smartphones have increased and also how social networks became part of our daily life, it is predictable that social network driven services are about to dominate the near future. It is also noticeable that more and more external devices are involved in different type of IT solutions. These are smart watches, smarthome devices and even transportation devices. Furthermore, different smart city concepts are also becoming more and more popular. In this paper, we propose a mobile application based smart transportation solution, called Social Driving that combines the smart city concept with green transportation. Social Driving is based on our VehicleICT framework that is also introduced in this report. The base idea is that drivers can monitor different parameters of their cars and driving style, such as fuel consumption and CO2 emission, furthermore, they can compare these values with other drivers using similar cars and similar engine types. The solution creates different statistics and as a rewarding system motivates people to use their cars more efficiently. We describe architecture of the social driving concept, show and elaborate different measurement results derived from test drives and discuss the effectiveness of the system.
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(2015): From Proxemics Theory to Socially-Aware Navigation: A Survey. In: International Journal of Social Robotics 7 (2), S. 137-153. DOI: 10.1007/s12369-014-0251-1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12369-014-0251-1 Abstract: In the context of a growing interest in modelling human behavior to increase the robots’ social abilities, this article presents a survey related to socially-aware robot navigation. It presents a review from sociological concepts to social robotics and human-aware navigation. Social cues, signals and proxemics are discussed. Socially aware behavior in terms of navigation is tackled also. Finally, recent robotic experiments focusing on the way social conventions and robotics must be linked is presented.
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(2015): A Developmental Science Approach to Reducing Prejudice and Social Exclusion. Intergroup Processes, Social-Cognitive Development, and Moral Reasoning. In: Social Issues and Policy Review 9 (1), S. 121-154. DOI: 10.1111/sipr.12012
Abstract: This article presents a developmental science approach to changing attitudes and rectifying prejudice and discrimination. This is crucial because stereotypes and prejudicial attitudes are deeply entrenched by adulthood; the time for intervention is before biases are fully formed in adulthood. Adults as well as children are both the recipients and the perpetrators of prejudice as reflected by social exclusion based on group membership. Determining the factors that inhibit or reduce the negative outcomes of prejudice and exclusion is of paramount importance. Research reveals that young children are aware of in-group and out-group differences very early but what becomes full-fledged prejudice, in fact, emerges slowly during childhood and adolescence. At the same time, morality, an understanding of fairness and equality, emerges during this same time period. On the positive side, evidence reveals that in certain contexts, children understand the unfairness of prejudicial attitudes and social exclusion designed to inflict harm on others. On the negative side, prejudicial attitudes, even when not intentional, have detrimental consequences for children as targets of biased attitudes. This article describes research on social reasoning, moral judgments, group identity, group norms, and intergroup contact in childhood to shed light on the catalysts and obstacles that exist for the goal of promoting the development of positive intergroup attitudes from early childhood to adulthood. Implications for policy and intervention are provided.
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(2015): (MIXED) CULTURAL IDENTITIES: CONSTRUCTION AND DEKONSTRUCTION. In: Annales - Anali za Istrske in Mediteranske Studije - Series Historia et Sociologia
Abstract: The paper is based on two presuppositions, namely that identity (as understood in the western philosophical tradition) as well as cultural identity that derives from the former are both social constructs, which were formed in specific socio-historical conditions. Accordingly, (mono) cultural identity as such is a "fiction" that demands constant reification, i.e. maintenance and legitimization by the ideological state apparatuses. And the second presupposition is that the omnipresence and prevalence of the discourse of culturally homogeneous and monocultural identifications is misleading. To that end, several empirical studies are presented in which the authors are trying to demonstrate the omnipresence of transcultural and culturally mixed identities. At the same time, they argue that we as individuals are used to think within the frames of culturally homogeneous nationalistic categories that are implicitly as well as explicitly transmitted by all main socialization agents of the contemporary social systems. The paper points out that special attention to the contextuality in the interpretations of cultural and ethnic (self-)identifications must be taken into account. The informants' statements imply that the culturally mixed/monocultural identities must be understood in the context of the existing social order, within which the monoethnic identity is still the prevailing norm and thus the monoethnic paradigm is encouraged and reified. As we are trapped in the existing notions and consequently "used to think" monoethnically and exclusively, many individuals do not recognise and reflect their actual ethnic and cultural mixedness, they overlook it or do not know how to express it. (Cultural) Identity, as other social phenomena, does not exist in a social vacuum; it is produced and reproduced by the agents and institutions of power and influence, state-making and nationalistic processes. This is the reason why the apparent, illusory and evident existence of homogeneous self-identifications should not be taken easily In their reflections about the influence of hegemonic national(istic) power the authors claim, that we are actually all, to some extent, mixed even though not all of us might know how to grasp this mixedness.
2014
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(2014): Minds as social institutions. In: Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences 13 (1), S. 121-143. DOI: 10.1007/s11097-013-9324-0
Abstract: I will first discuss how social interactions organize, coordinate, and specialize as "artifacts," tools; how these tools are not only for coordination but for achieving something, for some outcome (goal/function), for a collective work. In particular, I will argue that these artifacts specify (predict and prescribe) the mental contents of the participants, both in terms of beliefs and acceptances and in terms of motives and plans. We have to revise the behavioristic view of "scripts" and "roles"; when we play a role we wear a "mind." No collective action would be possible without shared and/or ascribed mental contents. This is also very crucial for a central form of automatic mind-reading (mind ascription). Second, I will argue that often what really matters is the ascribed/prescribed, worn, mind not the real, private one. We have to play (like in the symbolic play) "as if" we had those mental contents. This social convention and mutual assumption makes the interaction work. The ascribed beliefs and goals are not necessarily explicitly there; they might be just implicit as inactive (we act just by routine and automatically) or implicit as potential. The coordination and social action works thanks to these "as if" (ascribed and pretended) minds, thanks to those conventional constructs. Our social minds for social interactions are coordination artifacts and social institutions.
Keywords: als ob, belief in beliefs, Coordination, coordination artifacts, Extended mind, Interaktion, Kooperation, Kognitionswissenschaft/Social Sciences/Humanities, Konventionen, philosophy of mind, script, Social frames, Social institutions, social interaction, soziale Kognition, theory of mind, Überzeugungen, Voraussetzungen für sozial angemessenes Verhalten -
(2014): The DNA of Conventions. In: Law and Philosophy 33 (5), S. 535-571. DOI: 10.1007/s10982-013-9191-4
Abstract: This paper defends a moralized account of conventions, according to which conventional practices are necessarily normative reasons that are ultimately grounded on moral principles (such as fairness, respect or prevention of harm). It argues that a convention exists just in case the fact that others participate in some common practice as well as facts about their motivating reasons for doing so, justify conformity to that practice. The paper locates this moralized account within the relevant philosophical literature and argues that it does better than its rivals in explaining the presence of both motivating and normative reasons in our concept of convention.
2013
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(2013): Samuel R. Wells's How to behave. The classic pocket manual of good manners & model behavior. Avon, Mass.: Adams Media
Abstract: A modern guide to the timeless rules of good behavior In the years since its publication in the late nineteenth century, How to Behave has taught thousands of men and women how to build a strong, noble character and demonstrate model behavior in any situation. Now, in this updated edition of Samuel R. Wells's classic work, you, too, can manifest the traits and manners characteristic of a simpler era. At the heart of Wells's timeless tips, you'll find that a true lady or gentleman must always have a sincere regard for others, good taste, and an excellent sense of self-command.
2011
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(2011) : Politechnology: Manners Maketh Machine In: Hayes, Caroline C.; Miller, Christopher Allan (Hg.): Human-computer etiquette: Cultural expectations and the design implications they place on computers and technology: Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, S. 351-362
Abstract: There is an old English saying that "Manners maketh man." The original quotation is attributed to William of Wykeham and is a simple aphorism that acknowledges the tacit assumption that for human beings to live and thrive collectively, there must be a degree of formalization about their social intercourse. Although the bedrock of such mutual behavior would seem to be the law, our actual sharing of common assumptions goes much deeper. For we must all learn the social conventions first through the mediation of perception, the beginnings of language, and subsequently complex conventions and naming processes. These capabilities are assimilated at our parents' feet. They are the very stuff of maturation, and although the precise conventions are highly culturally bound, the learning process itself cuts across all human experience. Now, into our diverse human cultures come potentially intelligent machines. And in respect of their growth and maturation, we can ask two critical questions. First, to what degree do these nascent centers of intentionality and potential consciousness need to adhere to the principles of human social intercourse? Second, and equally as important, do these machine have a collective of their own which now bestrides all human cultures? If they do, to what degree do they act on us as agents of convergent human cultural evolution? In asking these questions we also have to face the logical antithesis to all human-centered technological approaches, viz, should machines necessarily be made to behave according to human-centered rules? Is this their best mode of organization? Although the latter query might be antithetical heresy to those imbued with the spirit of human factors, it is a proposition we should always be obliged to consider. Overall, this a rather daunting set of issues to face, and so let us decompose the challenges they present so that we can consider them in their various component parts.
Keywords: doppelter Treffer, Etikette, Etiquette, Favoriten, Höflichkeit, Interaktionspartner, Konventionen, Mensch oder Maschine, Mensch-Maschine-Kommunikation, Mensch-Technik-Interaktion, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Mensch-Technische Systeme, Politeness, Potential independence of machine rules of behavior from human rules of behavior, Realtechnik, Sozial Intelligente Agenten, Soziale Robotik, Soziosensitive Systeme, Technik, Umgangsformen, Volltreffer, Voraussetzungen für sozial angemessenes Verhalten -
(2011): Understanding Historical (Im)Politeness. In: Journal of Historical Pragmatics 12 (1-2), S. 133-155. DOI: 10.1075/jhp.12.1-2.06ker
Abstract: Forms and conceptions of politeness vary noticeably from one society to another, and also, within a given society, from one age to another. However, it can be assumed that the treatment of politeness phenomena in terms of "facework" as advocated by Brown and Levinson (1978, 1987) might help us to shed some light on both cultural variations and diachronic variations in politeness behaviour. This assumption is tested by considering the question of "good manners" in the French classic age as they are recorded in some prescriptive and literary writings. The study reveals that the profound logic that politeness obeys is the same in all eras. I take a special interest in the "double binds" we are confronted with in the exercise of politeness, looking at, for example, compliments as a ritual activity.
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(2011): Die Konstruktion der gesellschaftlichen Wirklichkeit. Zur Ontologie sozialer Tatsachen. 1. Aufl.. Berlin: SuhrkampKeywords: Analytische Philosophie, Disziplin, Favoriten, Institution, Institution Soziologie, Konventionen, Modelle/Theorien, Normen, Ontologie, Philosophie, -Q--OBV, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziale Normen, Sozialer Tatbestand, Spielregeltheoretische Ansätze, Spielregeltheoretische Anstätze, Sprachphilosophie
2008
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(2008): Social Ontology as Convention. In: Topoi 27 (1-2), S. 139-149. DOI: 10.1007/s11245-008-9036-1
Abstract: I will argue that social ontology is constituted as hierarchical and interlocking conventions of multifarious kinds. Convention, in turn, is modeled in a manner derived from that of David K. Lewis. Convention is usually held to be inadequate for models of social ontologies, with one primary reason being that there seems to be no place for normativity. I argue that two related changes are required in the basic modeling framework in order to address this (and other) issue( s): (1) a shift to an intentional model - among other reasons, in order to account for normativity - and (2) moving away from the belief- desire, propositional attitude, framework for understanding the intentional realm toward an interactive, pragmatic model of intentionality. These shifts provide natural approaches to: (1) understanding the normativities of social realities; (2) the sense in which social ontology is often constituted in implicit relations among the participants rather than elaborated and iterated explicit beliefs and desires; (3) and language.
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(2008): The pragmatics of swearing. In: Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture 4 (2). DOI: 10.1515/JPLR.2008.013
Abstract: The main purpose of swearing is to express emotions, especially anger and frustration. Swear words are well suited to express emotion as their primary meanings are connotative. The emotional impact of swearing depends on ones experience with a culture and its language conventions. A cognitive psychological framework is used to account for swearing in a variety of contexts and provide a link to impoliteness research. In support of this framework, native and non-native English-speaking college students rated the offensiveness and likelihood of hypothetical scenarios involving taboo words. The ratings demonstrated that appropriateness of swearing is highly contextually variable, dependent on speaker-listener relationship, social-physical context, and particular word used. Additionally, offensiveness ratings were shown to depend on gender (for native speakers) and English experience (for non-native speakers). Collectively these data support the idea that it takes time for speakers to learn where, when, and with whom swearing is appropriate.
Keywords: Bekanntheitsgrad, Beleidigungen/swearwords etc., Contextual variability of swearing appropriateness, Favoriten, Genderabhängigkeit, (Individueller) Sprachstil, Konventionen, Kultur, Muttersprachler vs. Zweitsprachler, Relevenz von persönlichem Bekanntheitsgrad beim Benutzen von Schimpfwörtern, Situationsbedingter Kontext, Sprachgebrauch, time, Verwendung von grober Sprache/incivility 2006
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(2006): Jane Austen's guide to good manners. Compliments, charades & horrible blunders. New York: Bloomsbury
Abstract: Jane Austen's Guide to Good Manners is a light-hearted, insightful handbook written as if intended for her original Regency Era readers, and illustrated throughout with beautiful watercolors. When Anna, Jane Austen's young niece, sent her a novel for ""literary comment," Jane loved everything about it, except its utter disregard for the manners of the day. The resulting and tender correspondence between the two serves as the foundation for this instructional book. Etiquette and social behavior of the early 1800s come to life in lovely chapters teaching one on how to pay and return formal "calls," how to properly refuse a proposal of marriage, who should lead off the dancing at a country-house ball, and what to wear for a morning walk. Jane Austen used these daily customs and niceties to brilliantly illuminate the cloistered world of high society women in her timeless novels. Now with this delightful handbook of correct social behavior, readers will learn just why Mrs. Bennet of Pride and Prejudice couldn't call alone on her new, rich, bachelor neighbor and had to force the reluctant Mr. Bennet to do so...even as he uttered "Tis an etiquette I despise." An indispensable gift for any Austen fan, this beautiful book will prove irresistible to anyone wishing to go back in time to the atmosphere of their favorite Austen novels. Henrietta Webb is the co-creator of Bad Hair. Josephine Ross has written a number of books including, most recently, Jane Austen: A Companion, published in England by Austen's original publisher John Murray.
2003
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(2003): Defining dirt. Three early modern views of obscenity. In: TEXTUAL PRACTICE 17 (2), S. 253-275
Abstract: This essay examines the workings of bad language in the early modem period, along with its social and political contexts - why and under what circumstances some words were deemed inappropriate for polite or moral discourse and literature. In early modern English, words such as "shit' or "fuck' were not considered "swearing', but rather occupied a separate category of "wanton' or "obscene' language. Thomas Elyot's The Boke Named the Governour , Desiderius Erasmus' De Copia and George Puttenham's The Arte of English Poesie pay particular attention to this category. They investigate it from different perspectives, but reach similar conclusions: obscene words have an offensive power in excess of their literal meaning, exposing body parts and actions that should be concealed to a greater degree than do their more decorous synonyms. These texts also agree that the rules of decorum which govern obscenity are extremely flexible, so much so that obscene words may be the most useful and even the most appropriate terms in certain circumstances.
Keywords: Angemessenheit, Appropriateness, Appropriateness of inappropriateness, decorum, Fehlverhalten, fluchen, Grenzen, Grenzüberschreitung, Gruppenverhalten / Joint Action, Höflichkeitsforschung, (Im)Politeness Research, Inappropriateness, Interaktion, Konventionen, Literaturwissenschaft, Modelle/Theorien, Normen, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Obszönität, Respekt, Sprache, Sprachgebrauch, Status / biologische Marker, swearing, Umgangsformen, Unangemessenheit 2002
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(2002): Consciousness and Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
2001
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Hechter, Michael; Opp, Karl-Dieter (Hg.) (2001): Social norms. New York N.Y.: Russell Sage Foundation
Abstract: Social norms are rules that prescribe what people should and should not do given their social surroundings and circumstances. Norms instruct people to keep their promises, to drive on the right, or to abide by the golden rule. They are useful explanatory tools, employed to analyze phenomena as grand as international diplomacy and as mundane as the rules of the road. But our knowledge of norms is scattered across disciplines and research traditions, with no clear consensus on how the term should be used. Research on norms has focused on the content and the consequences of norms, without paying enough attention to their causes. Social Norms reaches across the disciplines of sociology, economics, game theory, and legal studies to provide a well-integrated theoretical and empirical account of how norms emerge, change, persist, or die out. Social Norms opens with a critical review of the many outstanding issues in the research on norms: When are norms simply devices to ease cooperation, and when do they carry intrinsic moral weight? Do norms evolve gradually over time or spring up spontaneously as circumstances change? The volume then turns to case studies on the birth and death of norms in a variety of contexts, from protest movements, to marriage, to mushroom collecting. The authors detail the concrete social processes, such as repeated interactions, social learning, threats and sanctions, that produce, sustain, and enforce norms. One case study explains how it can become normative for citizens to participate in political protests in times of social upheaval. Another case study examines how the norm of objectivity in American journalism emerged: Did it arise by consensus as the professional creed of the press corps, or was it imposed upon journalists by their employers? A third case study examines the emergence of the norm of national self-determination: has it diffused as an element of global culture, or was it imposed by the actions of powerful states? The book concludes with an examination of what we know of norm emergence, highlighting areas of agreement and points of contradiction between the disciplines. Norms may be useful in explaining other phenomena in society, but until we have a coherent theory of their origins we have not truly explained norms themselves. Social Norms moves us closer to a true understanding of this ubiquitous feature of social life.
1999
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(1999): Designing believable interaction by applying social conventions. In: Applied Artificial Intelligence 13 (3), S. 297-320. DOI: 10.1080/088395199117432
Abstract: One of the goals of the research al en of believable agents is to incorporate those capabilities that can make interaction with agents realistic and believable. We argue that it is necessary to consider social conventions in designing believable interaction; they are mechanisms used by conversation partners to coordinate behavior and communication. As a starting point, we began by identifying essential social conventions that are used to coordinate interaction in the physical world. We performed an empirical study to investigate how these conventions are used by people in virtual environments when they interact; we were interested to see which conventions were used naturally and how they influenced behavior. In our results, we report how these conventions were used to regulate behavior in virtual environments. We present design recommendations for how these results can be applied to guide the design of believable interaction.
Keywords: Design, Designing by applying social conventions, Disziplin, Favoriten, Ingenieurswissenschaft, Konventionen, Mensch-Technik-Relationen (MTR), Modelle/Theorien, Observablen/Kriterien für sozial angemessenes Verhalten und dessen Bewertung, Realtechnik, Sozial Intelligente Agenten, Soziale Angemessenheit, Soziale Robotik, Technik, Voraussetzungen für sozial angemessenes Verhalten 1992
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(1992): Decorum, power, and the courtly style. In: Quarterly Journal of Speech 78 (2), S. 149-172. DOI: 10.1080/00335639209383987
Abstract: If politics is an art, then matters of style must be crucial to ist practice. This essay considers how political actions are shaped by rhethorical practices that depend upon aesthetic perceptions. Modern assumptioms of artistic autonomy are replaced by the classical concept of decorum; which offers a model for understanding how political life is styled for rhetorical effect. The role of decorousness in contemporary politics is illustrated by the extreme case of the courtly style, which constitutes power through propriety, is centered on the king’s body, displaces speech with gesture, and ends in political paralysis.
1989
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(1989): Formal forms and discernment. Two neglected aspects of universals of linguistic politeness. In: Multilingua - Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication 8 (2-3), S. 223-248. DOI: 10.1515/mult.1989.8.2-3.223
Abstract: Brown and Levinson (1878, 1987) proposed principles of language usage according to politeness, which they claim to be universal. Their principles are supported by evidence from three languages of different origins. However, the universality of the principles is questionable from the perspective of language and usage which are distinctly relevant to linguistic politeness in Japanese. The neglected linguistic aspect is the choice of 'formal linguistic forms' among varieties with different degrees of formality. The neglected aspect of usage is 'discernment': the speaker's use of polite expressions according to social conventions rather than interactional strategy. This paper claims that a comprehensive framework for universals of linguistic politeness will have to incorporate these aspects outside of their scope. Finally, the justification of the comprehensive framework is discussed in terms of Weber's typology of actions and Habermas' theory of communicative action.