Testing Coleman’s Social-Norm Enforcement Mechanism: Evidence from Wikipedia
Jan Piskorski, Mikołaj Gorbatâi, Andreea
Jan Piskorski, Mikołaj
Gorbatâi, Andreea
Citations
Altmetric:
Publication Type
Journal article with impact factor
Editor
Supervisor
Publication Year
2017-01
Journal
American Journal of Sociology
Book
Publication Volume
122
Publication Issue
4
Publication Begin page
1183
Publication End page
1222
Publication Number of pages
Collections
Abstract
Since Durkheim, sociologists have believed that actors in dense network structures experience fewer norm violations. Coleman proposed one explanatory mechanism, arguing that dense networks provide an opportunity structure to reward those who punish norm violators, leading to more frequent punishment and in turn fewer norm violations. Despite ubiquitous scholarly references to Coleman’s theory, little empirical work has directly tested it in large-scale natural settings with longitudinal data. The authors undertake such a test using records of norm violations during the editing process on Wikipedia, the largest user-generated online encyclopedia. These data allow them to track all three elements required to test Coleman’s mechanism: norm violations, punishments for such violations, and rewards for those who punish violations. The results support Coleman’s mechanism.
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
4410 Sociology