A cognitive explanation of the perceived normativity of cultural conventions

I argue that cultural conventions such as social etiquette facilitate a specific (non‐Lewisian) kind of action coordination—role–interaction coordination—that is required for division of labour. Playing one's roles and coordinating them with those of others is a form of multitasking. Such multi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inMind & language Vol. 36; no. 1; pp. 62 - 80
Main Author Slors, Marc
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2021
Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
Subjects
action coordination
Cognition
cognitive offloading
Conventions
Coordination
cultural conventions
Culture
Division of labor
division of labour
Etiquette
Infrastructure
Multitasking
Politeness
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Summary:I argue that cultural conventions such as social etiquette facilitate a specific (non‐Lewisian) kind of action coordination—role–interaction coordination—that is required for division of labour. Playing one's roles and coordinating them with those of others is a form of multitasking. Such multitasking is made possible on a large scale because we can offload cognition aimed at coordination onto a stable infrastructure of cultural conventions. Our natural tendency to prefer multitasking in instances where one task requires low cognitive control can thus explain our preference for and expectation of familiar cultural conventions—that is, their perceived normativity.
ISSN:0268-1064
1468-0017
DOI:10.1111/mila.12265