ABSTRACT
Human social life is structured by norms: rules, shared by a group of people, about what beliefs and behaviors are appropriate. The norm of social responsibility stresses ones duty to help people in desperate need: a crying child, apparently lost or hurt, is everyones responsibility. The norm of reciprocity requires one to repay others gifts or favors: being mailed a packet of personalize address labels by the Paraplegic Society makes it hard to not send back a requested donation. Muzafir Sherif was one of the first social psychologists to investigate the emergence and perpetuation of normsin this case perceptual normsin the laboratory. Deviant individuals or minorities may not always have this kind of dramatic success, but they can still have considerable impact. Ubiquitous and hard-to-resist norms shape social life. As a result, groups exert tremendous normative influence over their members that only a few brave souls can defy.
