predictable

the cost of social norms
they occasionally were—they felt guilty about it—and their
guilt compelled them to be more prompt in picking up their
kids in the future. (In Israel, guilt seems to be an effective
way to get compliance.) But once the fine was imposed, the
day care center had inadvertently replaced the social norms
with market norms. Now that the parents were paying for
their tardiness, they interpreted the situation in terms of mar­
ket norms. In other words, since they were being fined, they
could decide for themselves whether to be late or not, and
they frequently chose to be late. Needless to say, this was not
what the day care center intended.
BUT THE REAL story only started here. The most interesting
part occurred a few weeks later, when the day care center re­
moved the fine. Now the center was back to the social norm.
Would the parents also return to the social norm ? Would their
guilt return as well? Not at all. Once the fine was removed, the
behavior of the parents didn't change. They continued to pick
up their kids late. In fact, when the fine was removed, there
was a slight increase in the number of tardy pickups (after all,
both the social norms and the fine had been removed).
This experiment illustrates an unfortunate fact: when a so­
cial norm collides with a market norm, the social norm goes
away for a long time. In other words, social relationships are not
easy to reestablish. Once the bloom is off the rose—once a so­
cial norm is trumped by a market norm—it will rarely return.
THE FACT THAT we live in both the social world and the mar­
ket world has many implications for our personal lives. From
time to time, we all need someone to help us move something,
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