GHR's online KCard repository

KCard : Society Rules

Automatic behaviour

Due and thanks to socialisation, people tend to automatically respect the following rules:

 Reciprocity (willing to give back when received)

 Commitment (stick to previous positions)

 Authority (obey to authority)

 Scarcity (accord value to scarce things)

 Friendship (trust friends)

 Social similarity (be similar to the majority)

These rules are normally followed when the context requires it. This allows adopting adequate behaviour without requiring conscious analysis of the situation, which would be unmanageable even in the most simple of everyday situations.

Misleading people

The important point is that the context can be artificially created -in appearance only- by a manipulator. In this case the person will follow the rule in a case where he shouldn't have, he's mislead by the appearance of the situation. This is a classic influence technique, for example:

 A salesperson will give you a sample before asking you to buy (reciprocal reaction to given sample)

 A scientific looking individual (white "medical" blouse, notepad, …) will advise you a product (Authority of the scientific appearance)

 Adverts will say "only 1000 items available" (scarcity)

Ideas to develop