Andrea Gallice (Università di Torino and Collegio Carlo Alberto)

Abstract: A society undergoes a change in the preferences of some of its citizens and more individuals may want to violate an established social norm. The majority of citizens is not informed about the societal change and may keep abiding by the norm fearing social costs. We study when and to what extent the endorsement by an opinion leader can boost the norm-breaking behavior. We show that the opinion leader can impact citizens’ behavior when she is neither too ideologically sided against the current norm, nor too concerned about the popularity of her stated opinions. The opinion leader has a stronger impact in societies where social costs are large, the uncertainty concerning the deepness of the societal change is high, and citizens interact more often with like-minded individuals.

joint with Edoardo Grillo, University of Padova