“No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.”
― Carrie Chapman Catt
If you lift your hand standing on a sidewalk in a big city centre ― sooner or later a car will stop right next to you, probably a yellow one, or with a checkerboard or a “taxi” sign on top of it.
You can sit in the car, and it will take you where you need to go, and you will pay the driver at the end.
You didn't have to agree with the taxi driver beforehand. In fact, it would be the first time you would see them. Nor do you have to talk to the driver to agree on specific terms of service or sign a contract.
However, there's an unwritten Social Contract and you've called upon it by signalling that you're ready for a specific kind of business transaction.
Of course, neither you nor the driver think about what happened in terms of "social contract" or "business transaction" ― you needed to go somewhere and this was how you get there. And if you would ask the driver ― he'd say something like "I'm a taxi driver, this is what I do"
There are many definitions of Social Contract, but for our purpose, we can define it as:
“This is how we agree and expect to behave here so that we all can benefit as a group”.
Social contracts are the foundational part of a culture.
Social contracts are very useful because they let people who have never met before “be on the same page” from the beginning and agree to the same terms of conducting themselves. A social contract is the expectations and the Default Mode of behaviour between people in a particular context.
The context is very important as there are different social contracts in different places and situations. If you lift your hand in a bar, no taxi driver would come up to you and ask “Where to?” even if the bar is full of taxi drivers.
What’s appropriate in one context or culture can be considered rude or even offensive in another. You can totally wear your only pink swim shorts or a bikini on a beach, but you probably wouldn’t like to show up like that to a business meeting.
Or, let’s say when you walk in your office building and you would say “hi” to someone you don’t know ― they most likely would say “hi” back. However, you would have much fewer chances to get a reply saying “hi” to a stranger outside.
When you get a new job you have to sign a contract with a company, which is typically very detailed and explicit. However, it also carries with itself a bunch of implicit social contracts with people in the company. For example, your employment contract probably doesn’t directly say what you should do when your boss is wrong. Whether you’re going to tell the boss that they’re wrong, or just do as they say ― depends on what kind of social contract is there in this particular company or team.
Why is all this important?
You can better understand why people behave in a certain way, especially in an unfamiliar environment.
For example, if you’re travelling to a different country or even changing jobs - the mental model of Social Contract gives you a way of how to approach understanding why and how people behave in this new-for-you environment. You could look for social contracts in this group and make note of those that you could use.
You can break some social contracts without consequences.
Like any other contract ― Social Сontracts are made by people. Both harmful and useful, they are created by individuals choosing to behave in a certain way.
It is important to understand that you can create new social contracts and replace old ones by setting an example. It will take on if it is useful.
“The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who actually do.”
Do you have any good examples of Social Contracts? Click on the comment button and share your example!
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