Everyday norms have become more permissive over time and vary across cultures

Kimmo Eriksson
,
Pontus Strimling
,
Irina Vartanova
,
Brent Simpson
,
Minna Persson
,
Khalid Ahmed Abdi

Universidad Privada Norbert Wiener
,
Psicología

Research Output:

Contribution to journal

Article

Peer-review

Open access

Publication Information

Output type

Research Output:

Contribution to journal

Article

Peer-review

Original language

American English

Article number

145

Journal (Volume, Issue Number)

Communications Psychology (Volume 3)

Publication milestones

Published - 07/10/2025

Publication status

Published - 07/10/2025

ISSN

2731-9121

Abstract

Every social situation that people encounter in their daily lives comes with a set of unwritten rules about what behavior is considered appropriate or inappropriate. These everyday norms can vary across societies: some societies may have more permissive norms in general or for certain behaviors, or for certain behaviors in specific situations. In a preregistered survey of 25,422 participants across 90 societies, we map societal differences in 150 everyday norms and show that they can be explained by how societies prioritize individualizing moral foundations such as care and liberty versus binding moral foundations such as purity. Specifically, societies with more individualistic morality tend to have more permissive norms in general (greater liberty) and especially for behaviors deemed vulgar (less purity), but they exhibit less permissive norms for behaviors perceived to have negative consequences in specific situations (greater care). By comparing our data with available data collected twenty years ago, we find a global pattern of change toward more permissive norms overall but less permissive norms for the most vulgar and inconsiderate behaviors. This study explains how social norms vary across behaviors, situations, societies, and time.

Funding Details

Funders that supported this research include the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (grant no. 2022.0191; Pontus Strimling), the Higher School of Economics Basic Research Program (Ekaterina Nastina and Natalia Soboleva), NextGenerationEU (contract no. BG-RRP-2.004-0007-С01; Kristina Stoyanova), the John Templeton Foundation (grant no. 62631; Robert M. Ross), the Australian Research Council (grant no. DP180102384; Robert M. Ross), the Youth Innovation Promotion Association, Chinese Academy of Sciences (grant no. 2023095; Junhui Wu), Open University of Israel (grant no. 48766; Ravit Nussinson), JSPS KAKENHI (grant no. JP21K02983; Toko Kiyonari); Narodowe Centrum Nauki (grant no. 2019/35/B/HS6/01421; Katarzyna Growiec), National Research and Development Fund (grant no. NKFIH-OTKA-K 135963; Marta Fulop), Australian National University (Samantha K. Stanley), the Swedish Research Council (grant no. 2023-01306; Giulia Andrighetto), Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation (grant no. FR-22-15319; Vladimer Gamsakhurdia), The Science Fund of the Republic of Serbia (grant no. 7744418; Bojana M. Dinić), CIS—Centro de Investigação e Intervenção Social (CIS-ISCTE) through funds allocated by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) (grant no. UIDB/03125/2020, https://doi.org/10.54499/UIDB/03125/2020: Ricardo B. Rodrigues), Czech Science Foundation (grant no. GA23-06170S; Sylvie Graf and Martina Hřebíčková), the Ministry of Science, Technological Development and Innovations of the Republic of Serbia (contract no. 451-03-66/2024-03; Ivana Pedović), Linköping University (Maria Luisa Mendes Teixeira).

Access to documents

10.1038/s44271-025-00324-4

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