Overview
Corruption in Nigeria is widespread and deeply embedded, undermining public institutions, basic services, and societal trust. While the legal and governance measures to fight corruption are essential, this report highlights that changing social norms and collective behaviour is equally critical.
This report aims to diagnose what drives corrupt behaviour in Nigeria, and the types of beliefs that support practices understood to be corrupt. Its findings are based largely on a national household survey jointly developed by the Chatham House Africa Programme and the University of Pennsylvania’s Social Norms Group (PennSONG), in collaboration with Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics as well as a network of academics and practitioners from Nigerian universities and NGOs. The findings present new evidence of the social beliefs and expectations that influence some day-to-day forms of corruption in Nigeria.
How people think and act is often dependent on what others think and do. Corruption is difficult to curb because it is motivated by many factors, including expectations about how other people are likely to behave. Efforts to change the beliefs of a few individuals are not in themselves enough to induce a sustainable change in collective behaviour. That requires a systematic approach that is context-specific – and that, crucially, is undertaken, owned and sustained by a critical mass of local actors who want to forge a ‘new normal’.
The report examines corruption in Nigeria from the perspective of the social norms that serve as embedded markers of how people behave as members of a society and have a strong influence on how they choose to act in different situations. These social influences determine accepted forms of behaviour in a society, and act as indicators of what actions are appropriate and morally sound, or disapproved of and forbidden.
Disapproval of a practice, and the social consequences of failing to adhere to community expectation – such as gossip, public shaming, or loss of credibility and status – have a powerful influence on the choices people make. Equally powerful are the approval, social respectability and esteem attached to behaviour that is evaluated within one’s community as right or acceptable.
In the context of anti-corruption in Nigeria, understanding these underlying social drivers helps to identify which forms of corruption are underpinned by social norms, and which practices are driven by conventions, local customs or circumstances (as shown in figure 1). Identifying the specific social drivers of specific collective practices is critical to designing targeted and effective policy interventions to change those practices. This is because not all collective practices, regardless of how pernicious, are driven by a social norm.
Key findings and critical challenges
- Social norms of corruption are limited to specific contexts and sectors in Nigeria.
- If the environment or options change, behaviour will change.
- Collective action is sometimes impeded because people have misconceptions about what other people really think.
- In Nigeria, the social contract between government and the people is very local and not national.
- The true costs and consequences of corruption are hidden within the normal interactions of daily life.
- Tough talk and fear-based messaging cannot substitute for authenticity and exemplary behaviour.
Policy approaches to influence collective action against corruption
- Changing incentives in contexts where corruption is a rational response or is environmentally driven.
- Reducing official fine rates would erode the scope for state agents to solicit petty bribes from citizens in return for escaping official penalties.
- Targeting sectors and communities with information on the human costs of corruption.
- Reframing the approach to anti-corruption messaging and interventions.
- Highlighting and empowering trendsetters (both real and fictional) to drive behavioural change.
- Using trendsetters and social marketing strategies to overturn the false beliefs that tend to drive corrupt practices.
- Integrating behavioural insights into anti-corruption strategies.
The findings of this report highlight important options for the trial of interventions to shape positive social norms, and for monitoring their impact over the long term. For instance, there is scope for smaller exercises to identify trendsetters for behavioural change and to design interventions using this tool within specific sectors such as the Nigeria Police Force and other branches of law enforcement.
A careful understanding of the factors that drive relevant behaviours should be a critical component of government actions to reduce corruption. It is recommended that an interagency unit be established in Nigeria to review and hone anti-corruption messaging, and to advise how behavioural lessons can be practically, ethically and most effectively applied at all stages of policymaking – from diagnostics to design, implementation and evaluation – rather than as a separate approach that produces ‘behavioural policies’ as add-ons.