Focusing on When Do People Obey Laws and Why It Matters

This chapter focuses on the gap in our understanding of how laws can influence individual behaviors and attitudes. It starts with a summary of the multiple explanations as to why people obey laws and frameworks that aggregate these different motivational mechanisms. However, there is little guidance on when these different mechanisms will trigger compliance with laws. Why do some laws fail to create lasting change despite active enforcement while others can lead to attitudinal shifts by mere expression? When does public shaming work as an effective means to create compliance? When would information dissemination be adequate to shift behaviors? These questions need us to understand not only why people obey laws but when (and under what social and institutional conditions) will people obey laws through these different motivational mechanisms. This chapter discusses why this is an important and urgent question to ask for research and policy as well as provide details on how this book aims to address it.