13. Cristina Bicchieri on social norms of corruption, Antanas Mockus and Soap Operas

KickBack - The Global Anticorruption Podcast

The interview this week features Cristina Bicchieri – the S. J. Patterson Harvie Professor of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics at University of Pennsylvania. The Kickback interview kicks off with Cristina’s early work on corruption in the mid 1990’s together with the physicist Carlo Rovelli (1995) and John Duffy (1997) and how this work was sparked by the mani pulite scandal in Italy. This theoretical work describes why corruption is often so “sticky” . Cristina then outlines the importance of measurement to provide empirical support for her theoretical concepts, especially the distinction between unconditional versus conditional behavior and empirical versus normative expectations (for more info on this we highly recommend her newest book: Norms in the Wild). She describes how cleverly designed vignette studies help researchers to understand why a certain behavior persists. One of the places where Cristina has done research on corruption is Nigeria (for more details see Hofmann & Patel) where she finds interesting differences in perceived frequency and acceptability of corruption depending on the gender of the perpetrator. The interview also covers what Cristina has learned in the past decades of doing research on corruption. Anti -Corruption Cristina outlines how making the negative consequences of corruption salient could help to deter corruption and why classical punitive measures usually don't work. Another interesting nugget: When it comes to information campaigns, providing information about the high corruption levels of others can backfire by giving people a license to corrupt themselves. Finally, Nils and Cristina discuss the work of the former mayor of Bogotá, Antanas Mockus, who became famous for his unorthodox measures to change social norms. For example, you can find out how pantomimes helped to improve the traffic situation in Bogotá. Cristina’s Picks of the podcast: Bicchieri C (2016) Norms in the Wild: How to Diagnose, Measure, and Change Social Norms, 1 edition. Oxford University Press, New York, NY The soap opera: Simplemente Maria If you want to find out more about Cristina’s work: Bicchieri, C., & Duffy, J. (1997). Corruption cycles. Political Studies, 45(3), 477–495. http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.00092 Bicchieri, C., & Rovelli, C. (1995). Evolution and Revolution: The Dynamics of Corruption. Rationality and Society, 7(2), 201–224. http://doi.org/10.1177/1043463195007002007 Bicchieri, C., & Mercier, H. (2014). Norms and Beliefs: How Change Occurs. The Jerusalem Philosophical Quarterly, 63(January 2014), 60–82. http://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05308-0 Bicchieri, C., & Dimant, E. (2019). Nudging with Care: The Risks and Benefits of Social Information. SSRN Electronic Journal, (January). http://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3319088 Hoffmann LK, Patel RN (2017) Collective Action on Corruption in Nigeria: A social norms approach to connecting society and institutions. 1–53