Rebels, renegades, and Robin Hoods : The social-hierarchical dynamics surrounding norm violators

When studying the social-hierarchical dynamics surrounding norm violators it is important to consider both perceptions of power as well as people’s willingness to actually grant power to a norm violator. People often submit to others who appear powerful, therefore norm violators may inspire submission through their powerful appearance. However, perceptions of power do not necessarily translate into the voluntary granting of power. Instead, observers may put the norm violator back in place, as we observed in Chapter 2 when sanctions removed the apparent power that the norm violator initially seemed to have. Therefore, when studying the social-hierarchical dynamics surrounding norm violators, it is important to also consider people’s willingness to grant power to norm violators. The findings of Chapters 3 and 4 suggest that people who bluntly break norms are not granted power (e.g., in the form of obtaining a leadership position). However, norm benders and parochial norm abiders may be readily granted power if there is a cause for their disregard for the norm – be it in the form of situational demands (competition calls for a dominant leader) or in the form of situational constraints (it is not possible to abide by group norms without violating community norms).