The hottest Social norms Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
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Top Culture Topics

A bit too wet for me in the end

quite useless • 452 implied HN points • 19 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. The film 'Saltburn' cleverly explores class dynamics through traditional characters and allusions.
  2. 'Saltburn' effectively leverages its setting to provide keen social observation and moral inquiry.
  3. 'Triangle of Sadness' suffers from a lack of cleverness in its script, leading to failed attempts at role reversal and humor.

You Have No Right to Your Culture

Bet On It • 25 implied HN points • 26 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. You don’t have a right to own your culture; claims of exclusive cultural ownership are challenged and questioned.
  2. The collection uses essays to examine the human condition, pushing back on common social and moral beliefs about culture and identity.
  3. The essays are collected as a book and are available in both paperback and e-book formats.

Will You Turn Off Your Phone for 24 Hours?

The Analog Family • 319 implied HN points • 28 Feb 24
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Global Day of Unplugging encourages people to turn off their phones for 24 hours. It helps us realize how much we rely on our devices.
  2. Unplugging can improve our relationships, especially with kids who crave attention from parents. By disconnecting, we can reconnect better with each other.
  3. Taking a break from screens can lead to a fun and refreshing experience. It might inspire us to make unplugging a regular habit.

How visualization reveals implicit prejudices

Alberto Cairo's The Art of Insight • 219 implied HN points • 08 Apr 24
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Data visualization can show our hidden biases. Seeing how we react to certain graphs might make us realize our feelings about different groups.
  2. Negative reactions to visual data about trans and nonbinary people may reflect societal prejudices. People should think about why they feel the way they do when looking at such charts.
  3. Many mainstream media outlets report on gender issues in a biased way. Understanding our biases can lead to better reporting and broader acceptance of gender diversity.
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A clarification but, crucially, not a correction

Close-reading the reruns with Phoebe Maltz Bovy • 334 implied HN points • 30 Jan 24
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. The author clarified a theory about online pseudonyms critiquing appearances of celebrities, emphasizing it was just a neutral guess.
  2. The author received feedback from a woman contradicting assumptions about their identity and intentions behind their critique of Taylor Swift's appearance.
  3. The discussion expanded to critique societal norms around women's body image and the impact of judgments on appearance.

Social norms as classifiers

normality’s Substack • 39 implied HN points • 25 Jul 24
📖 Philosophy Social norms
  1. Humans create social norms to help detect and punish cheating behavior. These norms act like classifiers that help separate honest mistakes from dishonest actions.
  2. The Knobe effect shows that people often see bad actions as intentional, while good actions are viewed differently. This can lead to inconsistencies in moral judgment based on our understanding of intentions.
  3. It's important to continuously review and update our social norms. When norms fail, they can harm innocent people, so we need to make sure they are fair and effective.

The breaking of the spell

Wrong Side of History • 346 implied HN points • 27 Jun 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social norms
  1. Many people avoid speaking the truth due to fear of social consequences. This can change when they stop worrying about backlash.
  2. Shame is used to keep people silent about their true opinions. When enough people stop fearing this shame, things can shift.
  3. In Britain, there's a sense that the public is starting to break away from this fear. This change can lead to new possibilities in politics.

Use phone manners or I don't answer your calls

Disaffected Newsletter • 999 implied HN points • 19 Apr 23
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Always identify yourself when making a call. Just saying 'Is Josh there?' without your name is rude.
  2. Check if it's okay to use speakerphone before you start talking. It can make your call harder to hear, and the other person might not want private conversations overheard.
  3. Ask if the other person can hear you well after connecting your headphones. It's important to make sure they can understand you clearly.

Considerations on Cultural Drift

Nothing Human • 20 implied HN points • 21 Jan 26
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Cultural evolution is malfunctioning: extreme monoculture, rapid elite-driven change, and weaker selection pressures are letting maladaptive norms spread. This undermines the adaptive processes that built modern civilization and risks long-term social decline.
  2. It’s unclear that population decline will automatically stop innovation; the economic models that predict collapse are uncertain and contested. Institutions, digitized knowledge, AI, and reforms in how we do science could sustain or even boost innovation despite fewer people.
  3. Most obvious fixes are politically or morally blocked, so easy paths like subsidizing niche cultures, state cultural engineering, or privatizing long-term capital look impractical. Addressing cultural drift will likely require bold, unconventional governance or social experiments to restore deep cultural variety.

Attitudes one can take towards people who have behaved badly

DYNOMIGHT INTERNET NEWSLETTER • 875 implied HN points • 07 Nov 24
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Social punishment is a natural part of how humans interact, helping to enforce a social contract. It can feel too harsh or unjust at times, but it still serves a purpose.
  2. There's a tricky balance in discussing the ideas of people who have done bad things. We need to find ways to remember their contributions without overlooking their wrongdoings.
  3. It's important to correct the record if someone is proven innocent after being publicly condemned. Reputations can suffer permanently, and it’s crucial to acknowledge when we've gotten things wrong.

Mads Larsen on the Fertility Crisis

In My Tribe • 698 implied HN points • 11 Dec 24
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Women today enjoy more independence and choices, which can lead to lower birth rates. As they become more selective in choosing partners, it impacts family size.
  2. Historical pair-bonding cultures ensured support for women and children, but this tradition is weakening as gender equality rises. The value of women's financial independence changes relationship dynamics.
  3. To encourage family growth, society may need to change how we view relationships and partnerships. Promoting earlier marriage and family life could help reverse declining birth rates.

Communication: do it right

Disaffected Newsletter • 859 implied HN points • 06 Apr 23
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Clear communication is important. When asking for help, be specific and provide details so others can understand you easily.
  2. Don't expect others to do the work for you. If you send vague messages, people might ignore your requests instead of figuring out what you want.
  3. Respect in communication is essential. Everyone should consider the needs of the person they're talking to and not treat them like a machine.

From Propriety to Extremism

Doc Hammer's Anvil • 216 implied HN points • 29 Jan 24
📖 Philosophy Social norms
  1. Mental illness isn't necessary for spiraling into extremism, but it can play a role in exacerbating the process.
  2. Human judgment of behavior is based on societal norms and personal perceptions of propriety, praise-worthiness, blame-worthiness, reward-worthiness, and punishment-worthiness.
  3. Low costs and high benefits can lead to purity spirals, where society's expectations become more demanding, driving behavior towards extremism.

Hostility to Money

David Friedman’s Substack • 224 implied HN points • 08 Jul 25
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. People often prefer non-monetary forms of payment in social situations, like inviting someone to dinner instead of giving them cash. This shows a belief that relationships should feel personal, not transactional.
  2. Adoption and surrogacy reveal the oddity of payment norms. While it's acceptable to pay for services related to these processes, directly paying a mother for consent is often seen as wrong.
  3. Money can change how we view relationships. When money is involved, it can make things feel unequal, as if one person is superior to the other, which is why some avoid payments in certain social interactions.

Shifting Gears in Brazil

Desk Notes by Charles Schifano • 157 implied HN points • 08 Aug 25
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. In Brazil, people tend to be closer together, both physically and emotionally. This can create a friendly, tight-knit atmosphere that might be surprising for outsiders.
  2. It's important to ask for help and accept it when offered, even in small situations. Working together as a group can turn a minor problem into a shared experience.
  3. Cultural differences can really shape how people interact, like how personal space varies. Understanding these differences helps us appreciate how people connect in different parts of the world.

The Obvious-Once-You-Think-About-It Reason Why Education Cuts Fertility

Bet On It • 659 implied HN points • 28 Oct 24
🚌 Education Social norms
  1. As education levels increase, people tend to have fewer children. This trend is seen in both individuals and countries.
  2. One reason for this is that students often want to finish their education before starting a family, leading to later parenthood.
  3. Education changes what people prioritize in life, making career success more important than having kids early.

Whose Lost Decade?

Some Unpleasant Arithmetic • 21 implied HN points • 20 Dec 25
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. The claim that white millennial men were primarily shut out by “wokeness” is overstated; shrinking humanities and media jobs, elite overproduction, credential inflation, and aging leadership explain much of their diminished opportunities.
  2. Both woke and anti-woke politics have often functioned as elite status games or marketing moves, which distracted energy from concrete material problems and led to elite capture of progressive language.
  3. Real change requires material fixes and collective coordination — more good jobs, reforms to stale hierarchies, and deliberate efforts to shift harmful gender norms — not just fights over elite hiring or word games.

Social Learning Links

In My Tribe • 440 implied HN points • 16 Dec 24
🚌 Education Social norms
  1. Many jobs today require expensive degrees that people might not even need. Instead, some suggest that students could go directly into work after high school and earn a good living.
  2. When people argue about politics, they often aren't trying to change each other's minds. Instead, they want to maintain their group loyalty and protect their beliefs.
  3. There are differing views on the Kids Online Safety Act. Some believe it will help protect kids online, while others think it could be ineffective and distracting for schools.

Girlfood

Close-reading the reruns with Phoebe Maltz Bovy • 235 implied HN points • 10 Jul 23
🍲 Food & Drink Social norms
  1. The trend of 'girl dinner' involves young women making meals out of snacks, sparking discussions on social media.
  2. Having simple snack meals every night can feel tedious, especially when lacking a kitchen for an extended period.
  3. Eating styles can be influenced by gender dynamics, with certain meal types being associated more with specific social situations or relationships.

giving up being the chill girl

bookbear express • 264 implied HN points • 29 Jan 25
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. It's important to be true to yourself instead of trying to please everyone. Always trying to make others happy can lead to feeling overwhelmed and anxious.
  2. Being 'chill' is often about meeting others' expectations, which can make you ignore your own feelings. It's okay to express your true emotions instead.
  3. Learning to listen and pay attention to others is a good skill, but it shouldn't come at the cost of your own self-worth. Balance is key to healthy relationships.

What is Patriarchy?

The Great Gender Divergence • 196 implied HN points • 12 Jun 23
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. In patriarchal societies, prestigious positions are dominated by men, reinforcing beliefs of male competence and authority.
  2. Material and cultural dimensions of patriarchy are mutually reinforcing.
  3. Patriarchal backlash can occur when gender norms are challenged.

saturday overton musings

bad cattitude • 247 implied HN points • 18 Jan 25
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social norms
  1. The way we talk about things is changing, and there are shifts happening around what can be said in public. This gives people more freedom to express their thoughts without worrying so much about censorship.
  2. People are starting to stand up against the fear of backlash for what they say. It’s important to speak openly and to set standards about what is acceptable to talk about.
  3. The recent changes show us that we can push back against bullying behavior in conversations. By speaking honestly and boldly, we can change the way discussions happen and reclaim our rights to express different viewpoints.

Costumed in Gender, Haunted by Patriarchy

Humanities in Revolt • 179 implied HN points • 22 Oct 23
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Halloween costumes often reinforce patriarchal gender stereotypes by limiting the options for boys and girls and associating certain traits with specific genders.
  2. Patriarchy's influence on culture is evident in the polarized definitions of maleness and femaleness in mass-produced children's Halloween costumes.
  3. Gender is a socially constructed concept, not a biological one, and it prescribes social norms and roles based on patriarchal assumptions rather than biological reality.

Ask vs guess culture

Tech and Tea • 946 HN points • 12 Aug 23
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Ask culture involves being direct in requesting what you want, even if it seems unreasonable.
  2. Guess culture involves asking for something only if you're fairly sure the other person will say yes, and reading indirect cues to gauge appropriateness.
  3. Navigating between ask and guess culture can be challenging, especially in personal relationships and work environments.

Vanity fair.

Soaring Twenties • 201 implied HN points • 22 Jan 25
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. People often expect you to define yourself in one way, but it's okay to like different things or change your mind. We can all have complex identities.
  2. Feminism isn't about fitting into a specific image or following strict rules; it is about wanting equality and being able to express ourselves freely without judgment.
  3. Gossip and assumptions about others can be harmful, and it's important to focus on being understanding and accepting of people's choices instead of labeling them.

Why do we still shake hands?

Random Minds by Katherine Brodsky • 23 implied HN points • 15 Nov 25
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Handshakes started as a way to show peace and trust, indicating that a person was not holding a weapon. It has ancient roots, dating back to at least the 9th century BC.
  2. Over time, the handshake has become a common social greeting in many cultures, particularly in the West.
  3. Despite concerns about hygiene, the handshake remains popular, as people are used to it and it signifies a friendly connection.

Message to all women: “your boundaries are now defunct”

A B’Old Woman • 419 implied HN points • 07 Nov 22
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Women are feeling their boundaries are being ignored, especially regarding safe spaces like toilets. There's concern that their right to privacy is being compromised.
  2. Policies are shifting to prioritize inclusivity for transgender and non-binary people, but this can sometimes overlook the needs and safety of women. The dialogue often places the needs of men before women's.
  3. Many believe that separate spaces for women, like women-only toilets, are important for their dignity and safety. There's a push for workplaces to recognize and respect these boundaries.

How To Understand Human Behavior (Part 3/4)

Living Fossils • 12 implied HN points • 03 Dec 25
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Human behavior is shaped by both the situation and the individual. The situation often carries more weight in determining how someone acts.
  2. Culture plays a big role in influencing behavior, but it's just another part of the situation. It's not separate from other environmental factors but integrated into how we respond to different scenarios.
  3. To understand human behavior better, we can group actions based on their underlying goals. Many different behaviors can aim for the same outcome, which helps clarify why people act the way they do.

The Marriage Market

David Friedman’s Substack • 161 implied HN points • 03 Jan 25
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Marriage can be viewed as a market where people offer certain terms to get a partner. If there are fewer options for one gender, the price or terms improve for the other gender.
  2. Having different qualities can change the 'price' of potential spouses. Attractive or compatible people often have better terms in marriage deals, similar to how desirable products are priced in a market.
  3. Legalizing practices like polygyny or polyandry can shift the demand for spouses, leading to better terms for some while making it tougher for others. It may seem confusing, but more choices can change how relationships are valued.

Let Women Speak in New Zealand.

A B’Old Woman • 219 implied HN points • 10 Mar 23
🇺🇸 U.S. Politics Social norms
  1. Working together on one clear issue can lead to big achievements. It's important to focus on what unites us, even when we have different beliefs.
  2. It's okay to have positions we won't compromise on, but we can still find common ground with others. Open dialogue can help build respect and understanding.
  3. Conversations around important topics like women's rights should be honest and straightforward. It's essential to protect our bodies and ensure a good future for our children.

The Ironist

Desk Notes by Charles Schifano • 109 implied HN points • 14 Feb 25
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. People often want irony to be shown clearly because misunderstandings are frustrating. They might wish for a special font to spot irony right away.
  2. Irony relies on the gap between what is said and what is meant. If everyone understands it perfectly, it might not be true irony.
  3. Today's culture puts a strong focus on clarity and being understood. This change makes it harder for people to laugh off mistakes or misunderstandings.

Turn-taking in the age of Zoom

The Counterfactual • 139 implied HN points • 05 May 23
🎭️ Culture Social norms
  1. Turn-taking is a key part of human conversation, where one person speaks and then the other responds. This has been observed even in some animals, showing that it's a long-established communication behavior.
  2. Studies show that conversation timing is mostly consistent across different languages, with an average pause of about 208 milliseconds between turns. This quick exchange helps keep conversations flowing smoothly.
  3. Zoom and similar video call platforms can disrupt the natural rhythm of conversations, leading to longer pauses and more frustration. This change might affect how we communicate in the long term as remote communication becomes more common.