Norm adoption by newcomers

Establish that new actors inserted into a population of predictive pattern‑completion agents will adopt the population’s existing norms that are sustained by conventional sanctioning.

Background

The theory holds that norms are learned through observing sanctioning and reproducing precedent, with agents’ predictive pattern completion making norm-consistent behavior more likely in the same contexts.

Based on this mechanism, the paper conjectures that newcomers entering a norm-governed population will learn and align with prevailing norms through exposure to sanctioning and precedent, posing an adoption dynamic to be established.