Focal Point Theory Test of Behavior and Attitudes (ICPSR 24721)
Version Date: Aug 26, 2009 View help for published
Principal Investigator(s): View help for Principal Investigator(s)
Janice Nadler, Northwestern University School of Law and American Bar Foundation;
Richard McAdams, University of Illinois College of Law
https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR24721.v1
Version V1
Summary View help for Summary
Economic theories of legal compliance emphasize legal sanctions, whereas psychological and sociological theories stress the perceived legitimacy of law. Without disputing the importance of either mechanism, this study tests a third way that law affects behavior, an expressive theory that claims law influences behavior by creating a focal point around which individuals coordinate. The study examined how various forms of third-party "cheap talk" influence the behavior of subjects in a Hawk/Dove or Chicken game. Despite the players' conflicting interests, it was found that messages highlighting an equilibrium tend to produce that outcome. Most striking, this result emerged even when the message was selected by an overtly random, mechanical process. A similar result was obtained when the message was delivered by a third-party subject; the latter effect was significantly stronger than the former only when the subject speaker was selected by a merit-based process. These results suggest that, in certain circumstances, law generates compliance not only by sanctions and legitimacy, but also by facilitating coordination around a focal outcome.
Citation View help for Citation
Export Citation:
Funding View help for Funding
Subject Terms View help for Subject Terms
Geographic Coverage View help for Geographic Coverage
Distributor(s) View help for Distributor(s)
Study Purpose View help for Study Purpose
To investigate an alternate way of how law affects behavior.
Sample View help for Sample
Convenience sampling.
Universe View help for Universe
Undergraduate students at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
Unit(s) of Observation View help for Unit(s) of Observation
Data Type(s) View help for Data Type(s)
Mode of Data Collection View help for Mode of Data Collection
HideOriginal Release Date View help for Original Release Date
2009-08-26
Version History View help for Version History
- Nadler, Janice , and Richard McAdams. Focal Point Theory Test of Behavior and Attitudes. ICPSR24721-v1. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2009-08-26. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR24721.v1
2009-08-26 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:
- Performed consistency checks.
- Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
Notes
These data are freely available to data users at ICPSR member institutions. The curation and dissemination of this study are provided by the institutional members of ICPSR. How do I access ICPSR data if I am not at a member institution?