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Fear Of Retaliation & Social Norms

Fear of retaliation: Why we tend not to enforce social norms

When bystanders become witnesses of a social norm violation, they will confront the culprit - all the more if the violation is severe. Although this appears to make sense, in fact the opposite is true. The more severe the norm violation, the more reluctant people will be to reprimand the person who committed it. Their fear of retaliation is too great. Ref. Source 6k.

Norms Social and Retaliation Fear

The only thing to fear is fear itself and anyone outside of the social norm brings the fear that something new will have to be accepted or like. I propose that most in society do not actually like following social norms but do it anyway so they can be accepted.