This Norms and Behavioral Change Talk happened on Thursday, October 22nd, 2026 at 1:00pm EST with Dr. Leonardo Bursztyn of The University of Chicago!
Abstract: Why do people keep using products they wish did not exist? This talk examines “product market traps”: situations in which adoption is driven not only by the benefits of using a product, but also by the social costs of opting out. Social media is a prominent example, but similar forces shape demand for messaging services and AI tools. Drawing on experimental evidence, the talk explores how these forces can generate widespread adoption despite negative consumer welfare, and why conventional approaches to measuring consumer welfare and defining markets can miss the problem. It then considers the challenges these traps pose for competition policy and regulation, including the limitations of social media bans. Finally, the talk discusses how coordinated behavioral change, better platform design, and new tools can help people escape these traps and reclaim their time.
Prior to the talk, ECR speaker, Dr. Shuxian Jin from Peking University will also give a short presentation titled 'The cultural logic of honor and antisocial punishment in social dilemmas: A multi-lab study across three world regions'.
Abstract: Punishment can sustain cooperation by targeting free riders (prosocial punishment), but it may also backfire by triggering retaliation; and when punishment is directed at cooperators (antisocial punishment), it can lead to a decline in cooperation. Samples exhibiting greater antisocial punishment in previous research have tended to come from societies where honor is believed to play a stronger role in shaping social behavior. Here, we tested the role of honor in antisocial punishment through a preregistered multi-lab experiment conducted in Egypt (n = 266), South Korea (n = 212), and the United Kingdom (n= 192), using public goods games with and without punishment. While the level of antisocial punishment was higher among the Egyptian sample, compared to the South Korean and British samples, individual-level honor values and norms were not associated with antisocial punishment across all three samples. Nevertheless, individuals with stronger personal honor values exhibited heightened retaliation, particularly targeting cooperators after being punished unfairly. These findings suggest that honor is not a cultural aspiration that provokes, nor a norm that prescribes, aggression toward cooperators, but rather a cultural logic that shapes when and for whom punishment becomes a tool of harmful retaliation rather than cooperation enforcement.
