What Do You Think About Social Norms?

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Tribalism is often a very good thing. It increases capital within a particular group. If if people share particular norms, they care about each other more. They're kind of, they become a family. And the fact that the're a family is actually a good thing. it means thatt they show particular deference to each other. To love everybody is to love nobody. We should think of this as as efficient ightf if you divide the world into small groups who share in orms and thereby increase social capital within the group.

Traditions and norms can seem at best out-of-touch and at worst offensive to many a modern mind. But Israeli computer scientist and Talmud scholar Moshe Koppel argues that traditions and norms--if they evolve slowly--create trust, develop our capacity for deferred gratification, and even, in the case of how we prepare cassava, protect us from poisoning. Listen as the author of Judaism Straight Up: Why Real Religion Endures talks with EconTalk Russ Roberts about tradition, religion, tribalism, resilience, and emergent order.