Expressive Law
Authors: Janice Nadler, Richard McAdams
This project seeks to understand empirically the effects that law has apart from sanctions that it imposes. It tests experimentally the theory that law influences behavior in coordination games with multiple equilibria by providing a focal point for behavior. To test this claim, a series of controlled experiments are being conducted in which the expressive effects of law in the laboratory are modeled. Findings to date have led to the identification of several different components of expressive law. The first published article in connection with this project demonstrated that any third party message, even an overtly randomly selected one, can serve as a focal point to increase coordination. Most recently, the project has compared how law works in a coordination context and a purely competitive context. Results have confirmed the study’s hypothesis that law helps people coordinate their behavior apart from the sanctions it imposes.