ABSTRACT
Contemporary ethical theory and behavioral research on social influence enjoy at least one important point of conceptual convergence: Both lines of inquiry recognize the utility that human beings attach to general rules governing social conduct. In ethical theory, such rules often are justified on normative grounds and derived deductively from higher principles. For example, utilitarian perspectives on ethical behavior emphasize the central role that higher order rules play in individual conduct. In research on social influence, such rules more often are justified on empirical grounds and inferred from laboratory experiments or field studies (Cialdini, 1993).
