ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the term deonance in referring to motives such as acting from a sense of responsibility rather than selfish motives. The concept of deonance was first invoked to explain why third-party observers made personal sacrifices to punish perceived injustice. Deonance theory addresses categories of ought-force dynamics analogous to justification and legitimacy but is more encompassing. Just as physical forces such as gravity and electro-magnetism influence the extent of individual autonomy in terms of what people can do if they so choose, ought forces constitute one way in which social contexts influence what people perceive themselves and others as being allowed to do, required to do, and forbidden from doing. Connotative ought forces stem from aspects of behavior that represent something about what kind of behavior it is, such as in-and-of-itself expressive effects, whereas Platow and colleagues offered what was an indirectly instrumental interpretation of a supposedly non-instrumental effect.
