Introduction
Norms and values are foundational concepts in sociology, describing the shared rules, expectations, and moral ideals that guide behavior in society. ValuesValues are deeply held beliefs and ideals about what is good, desirable, and important in a society. explain what is considered good or desirable, while norms specify how to act in given situations. Together, they shape social order, cohesion, and cultural change. Understanding their definitions, types, and real-world examples helps us see why societies differ, how they maintain stability, and how they evolve over time. This article examines the meaning of norms and values, their origins, role in socialization, and their significance for both sociology and criminology.
Sociologists study norms and values to understand not only conformity but also deviance, social conflict, and cultural change. These concepts help explain why societies differ, how they maintain stability, and how they evolve over time. In criminology, norms and values are central to analyzing the origins of laws, the labeling of deviance, and the social construction of crime.
This article explores the definitions, types, origins, and functions of norms and values, their role in socialization, and their importance for both sociology and criminology. It also considers how globalization and cultural diversity influence norms and values today.
Norms Definition, Types, and Examples
NormsNorms are socially shared rules or expectations that guide and regulate behavior within a group or society. are the shared rules and expectations that guide behavior in a society. They tell members what is considered appropriate or inappropriate in specific contexts. Norms are social prescriptions that shape everything from daily etiquette to serious moral obligations.
Sociologists often distinguish between different types of norms:
- Folkways: Everyday conventions or customs with relatively mild sanctions (e.g., table manners, dress codes).
- Mores: Stronger norms tied to moral views, whose violation elicits greater disapproval (e.g., honesty, sexual fidelity).
- Laws: Formalized norms enforced by the state, with legal sanctions for violations (e.g., theft, assault).
- Taboos: Prohibitions against behaviors seen as deeply repugnant (e.g., incest, cannibalism).
How Norms and Values Change Over Time
Norms and values are not fixed but socially constructed and historically contingent. They can vary greatly across cultures and change over time. Historical sociologists like Norbert Elias have shown how expectations around behavior, shame, and self-control transformed over centuries. Modern examples include shifting norms about remote work, gender identity, or climate-friendly consumption.
Values Definition and Cultural Importance
Values are deeply held beliefs about what is good, desirable, and important in a society. They provide the underlying principles that guide individual and collective behavior. While norms specify how people should act in given situations, values explain why those actions are seen as appropriate or important.
Values can be thought of as the moral compass of a culture. They offer broad, general guidelines rather than specific rules. Examples of core values in many societies include:
- Equality: The belief that all people should have the same rights and opportunities.
- Freedom: The idea that individuals should be able to make their own choices.
- Justice: The commitment to fairness and equitable treatment.
- SecurityProtection from threats, harm, or danger.: The desire for safety and stability.
- Achievement: The value placed on personal success and accomplishment.
Values shape norms by providing the justification for them. For instance, the norm of queuing in line reflects the value of fairness. In this way, values give meaning to social rules and help maintain social order.
Values are culturally specific and can come into conflict, with different societies prioritizing values in different ways. While individual freedom may be central in some cultures, others emphasize collective responsibility and harmony. Such differences shape unique social expectations and can lead to misunderstandings when societies interact.
Such cultural differences shape unique social expectations and can lead to misunderstandings or conflicts when societies interact.
Cultural Variation in Norms and Values
What is seen as polite, moral, or even legal varies greatly across cultures. Eating with hands is normal in some societies, taboo in others. Concepts of honor, family duty, or freedom can differ widely. Recognizing this cultural diversity helps us avoid ethnocentrism and appreciate the variety of ways humans organize social life.
Norms vs. Values: How They Are Connected
Norms and values are closely intertwined components of a society’s cultural framework. Values provide the moral and ideological foundation, while norms translate those abstract principles into concrete expectations for behavior.
In essence:
- Values = Why (the justification or reason)
- Norms = How (the rules or expectations)
For example:
| Value | Norms |
|---|---|
| Equality | Treat everyone with respect regardless of their background. |
| Security | Lock your doors at night; cooperate with police instructions. |
| Honesty | Don’t lie in court or on official documents. |
This connection means that when values change, norms often change too. Societal shifts in values—like increasing emphasis on environmental sustainability or gender equality—can lead to new norms about consumption, language, or interpersonal behavior.
Conversely, persistent changes in everyday norms can reshape underlying values over time. As people adopt new practices, they may come to see them as morally important or self-evident.
By examining norms and values together, sociologists can better understand how societies create and maintain social order, negotiate change, and manage internal tensions and contradictions.
Excursus: Is a Society Without Norms Possible? (Anarchy and Normlessness)
Sociologists often ask whether a society without norms is possible. In theory, the idea of anarchy suggests a form of social organization without formal rules or centralized authority. However, anthropological and sociological research suggests that even so-called „stateless“ or „anarchic“ societies rely on shared norms and values to coordinate behavior.
No society can function without some expectations about what is acceptable or unacceptable. Even in highly egalitarian or decentralized communities, there are rules governing reciprocity, conflict resolution, kinship, and status. What differs is how norms are generated, enforced, and legitimized.
In extreme cases of anomie (a state of normlessness theorized by Émile Durkheim), societies can experience breakdowns of social order, leading to uncertainty, alienation, and increased deviance. This suggests that while norms can be contested, negotiated, and transformed, some form of normative structure is indispensable for social life.
Origins of Norms and Power Dynamics
Norms do not appear out of nowhere—they emerge through social processes that reflect power dynamics, cultural negotiations, and historical contexts. Understanding how norms are created and maintained is key to grasping their role in social order.
Key sources of norm formation:
- Tradition: Passed down through generations, shaping expectations about family, gender roles, or etiquette.
- Authority: Laws, religious commandments, and institutional rules that codify behavioral expectations.
- Consensus: Informal agreement within communities about acceptable behavior.
- Social MovementsOrganized collective efforts aimed at promoting or resisting social, political, or cultural change.: Groups challenging existing norms and promoting new ones (e.g., civil rights, LGBTQAn acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer individuals and communities.+ rights).
One influential concept in understanding the creation of norms is Howard S. Becker’s idea of “moral entrepreneurs.”
- Moral Entrepreneurs: Individuals or groups who actively campaign to define certain behaviors as deviant and others as acceptable.
- They create, promote, and enforce new rules based on their moral visions.
- Examples: Temperance movements pushing for alcohol bans, anti-drug campaigns, environmental activists promoting sustainability norms.
Norms are thus not neutral reflections of shared values, but contested outcomes shaped by those with power, resources, and influence. Sociologists like Howard S. Becker emphasize the role of moral entrepreneurs in actively defining deviance and acceptable behavior. Similarly, Norbert Elias and John L. Scotson’s study The Established and the Outsiders shows how dominant groups use norms and stigma to maintain social boundaries and reinforce power hierarchies. This perspective reminds us that the social construction of norms is a dynamic process involving negotiation, conflict, and struggles over legitimacy and authority.
Excursus: Stateless or Acephalous Societies – Norm-Free?
Anthropologists have long studied acephalous societies—groups without centralized political leadership or formal state structures. Examples include many hunter-gatherer bands with no chiefs or permanent hierarchy.
While such societies lack formal property rights or authority figures, they are not norm-free. On the contrary, they often rely on dense webs of informal norms to maintain cooperation, equality, and conflict resolution.
For instance, norms of sharing, reciprocity, and modesty prevent accumulation and status competition. Gossip, ridicule, and group sanctions discourage behaviors that threaten social cohesion. Rather than having no rules, these societies use shared cultural expectations to prevent inequality and maintain collective autonomy.
This demonstrates that even in the absence of property or formal institutions, societies depend on norms to organize social life. The anthropologist Pierre Clastres famously argued that such communities don’t lack power structures because they haven’t evolved them—but because they actively resist them through cultural norms.
Excursus: Globalization and Cultural Exchange
In an increasingly interconnected world, norms and values travel across borders. Global media, migration, and trade expose societies to new ideas, leading to both convergence and resistance. For example, debates about human rights, gender equality, or environmental standards show how global norms can reshape local traditions—and how local cultures adapt or resist in turn.
Sanctions and Social Control
Norms do not merely describe how people should behave—they also shape behavior through social control, which relies on sanctions.
Sanctions are reactions to behavior that encourage conformity or punish deviance. They can be:
- Formal: Codified, institutionalized punishments or rewards (e.g., fines, imprisonment, academic grades, promotions).
- Informal: Unofficial, everyday reactions (e.g., praise, gossip, ridicule, social exclusion).
Social control refers to the ways societies enforce norms and maintain order. While the topic deserves its own full discussion, it’s important here to note that norms are not self-enforcing—they rely on social processes that apply sanctions to reward compliance and punish violations.
In short, norms and values only function as mechanisms of social order because they are backed by systems of social control that shape behavior and expectations.
Conclusion and Relevance for Sociology and Criminology
Understanding norms and values is essential for analyzing how societies maintain order, cohesion, and shared meaning. Norms guide expected behavior, while values justify and legitimize these expectations. Together, they form the cultural and moral infrastructure of social life.
In sociology, studying norms and values helps explain:
- Social integration and cohesion: How shared values hold groups together.
- Social change: How shifting norms reflect broader cultural transformations.
- InequalityUnequal distribution of resources, opportunities, and rights within a society. and power: Whose values become dominant, and how norms can reinforce hierarchies.
In criminology, norms are central to defining deviance and crime. What is labeled “criminal” is not universal—it varies across societies and changes over time. Criminologists examine:
- The social construction of deviance.
- Processes of labeling and moral entrepreneurship (e.g., Becker’s work on how certain groups define others as deviant).
- The role of sanctions and social control in maintaining order.
Ultimately, norms and values offer a window into the moral order of society—how it is created, maintained, contested, and changed. They remind us that social order is not natural or inevitable but socially constructed and historically contingent.
Example: Social Norms and Values Around Alcohol
Alcohol consumption is a powerful illustration of how norms and values vary across cultures, change over time, and regulate behavior in nuanced ways.
For example, in some Muslim-majority countries, alcohol is completely prohibited on religious and moral grounds. In many other societies, alcohol is legal but its use is heavily regulated and culturally coded.
Historically, norms have shifted dramatically. In medieval Europe, beer and wine were everyday staples, often safer to drink than contaminated water. Today, consumption is governed by complex social expectations that reflect broader values like health, moderation, respectability, and social cohesion.
These expectations vary by context and social factors:
- Time of day: Drinking in the morning may be seen as deviant, while evening social drinking is normalized.
- Quantity: Light drinking may be socially acceptable, while heavy intoxication is often stigmatized.
- GenderSocial and cultural roles, behaviors, and expectations linked to masculinity and femininity.: Men are often granted more leeway to drink, while women may face norms favoring sweeter, „lighter“ drinks like wine, prosecco, or liqueurs.
- Social class: Middle-class norms emphasize moderation and responsibility, while heavy drinking may be stereotypically associated with lower classes—or tolerated among elites as part of leisure culture.
- Type of alcohol: Wine and whiskey can signal sophistication and cultural capital, while beer and schnapps may carry working-class associations.
- Age: Laws and norms prohibit consumption by children and teenagers; first legal drinking is often treated as a rite of passage into adulthood.
- Non-consumption: Even abstaining is regulated; refusing to drink at collective rituals (e.g., holidays, weddings) can be seen as rude or socially disruptive.
This example shows that norms around alcohol are not natural or universal. They are socially constructed, culturally variable, historically changing, and deeply tied to values about morality, health, gender roles, class, and social belonging.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
What are social norms in simple terms?
Social norms are shared rules or expectations about how people should behave in specific situations. They help maintain social order by guiding acceptable conduct.
What is the difference between norms and values?
Values are broad ideals about what is good or important, while norms are specific rules that tell people how to act. Values explain why norms exist.
What are examples of social norms?
Examples include greeting politely, standing in line, driving on the correct side of the road, or following dress codes at work.
What are formal and informal norms?
Formal norms are written rules enforced by authorities, like laws. Informal norms are unwritten expectations enforced through social approval or disapproval.
Why are norms and values important in sociology?
They help explain how societies maintain order, promote social integration, and manage change. They also shed light on conflict, deviance, and cultural diversity.
Key Takeaways
- Norms and values are fundamental for understanding social order, change, and conflict.
- They are culturally specific, historically contingent, and subject to negotiation and power dynamics.
- Norms translate values into concrete rules for behavior, shaping expectations and social control.
- Examples like alcohol consumption illustrate the complexity of cultural norms and values.
References
- Becker, H. S. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: Free Press.
- Bicchieri, C. (2006). The Grammar of Society: The Nature and Dynamics of Social Norms. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Durkheim, E. (2014 [1895]). The Rules of Sociological Method. New York: Free Press.
- Elster, J. (2007). Explaining Social Behavior: More Nuts and Bolts for the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Goffman, E. (1959). The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. New York: Anchor Books.
- Hechter, M., Opp, K.-D., & Wippler, R. (Eds.). (1990). Social Institutions: Their Emergence, Maintenance, and Effects. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.
- Hitlin, S., & Vaisey, S. (Eds.). (2010). Handbook of the Sociology of Morality. New York: Springer.
- Hitlin, S., & Vaisey, S. (2013). The New Sociology of Morality. Annual Review of Sociology, 39, 51–68.
- Parsons, T. (1951). The Social System. Glencoe, IL: Free Press.
- Scott, J. (2014). A Dictionary of Sociology (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Further Information
Examples from literature and popular culture help illustrate how norms emerge, evolve, and sometimes collapse in response to social pressures and crises.
Pop Culture Example 1: Lord of the Flies
William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies depicts a group of schoolboys stranded on a deserted island without adults. Initially, they try to establish rules and democratic decision-making. However, as fear and competition grow, these norms break down into violence and authoritarian rule.
This story shows how norms can emerge quickly but also how they can erode under stress, leading to new forms of social control and hierarchy. It underscores the sociological insight that even normlessness (anomie) tends to produce new, often harsher norms.
Pop Culture Example 2: Rules in The Walking Dead
The TV series The Walking Dead offers a striking illustration of norm formation after societal collapse. Initially, survivors face anarchy, with no formal institutions or laws. However, as the series progresses, groups of survivors establish diverse rule systems to ensure survival and cooperation.
Examples include:
- Democratic councils in Alexandria.
- Authoritarian rule under the Governor or Negan.
- Matriarchal leadership in Oceanside.
- Loose nomadic bands with their own codes.
Even in a world of scarce resources and constant threat, rules emerge to regulate behavior, assign roles, and manage conflict. The series shows that complete normlessness is unsustainable. Instead, societies—even in crisis—create and adapt norms to provide predictability, legitimacy, and social order.
This illustrates a core sociological insight: Wherever humans live together, norms develop—shaped by their environment, needs, and power relations.
