Field experiments on the evolution of social norm by the observational learning

本研究探讨了观察学习他人行为对社会偏好的影响。在美国进行的基于网络的实验中，日本和中国，我们测量了受试者在观察学习前后的行为变化，并将其分为亲社会从众、利己从众、亲社会不从众和利己不从众。我们证实，在控制了观察学习的差异后，被试更倾向于顺从他人而不是不顺从他人，并且被试的亲社会顺从概率远高于自利顺从概率。这一发现意味着观察学习本身促进了被试的亲社会性。

This study investigates the influence of observational learning about others' behaviours on the social preference. In the web-based experiment conducted in the U.S., Japan, and China, we measured subjects' behavioural changes before and after the observational learning and categorized them into prosocial conformity, self-interested conformity, prosocial non-conformity, and self-interested non-conformity. We confirmed that subjects are more likely to conform to others than to non-conform and that the probability that subjects conform prosocially is much higher than that they conform self-interestedly after controlling the difference of the observational learning. This finding implies that the observational learning itself promotes subjects' prosociality.