Identifiant pérenne de la notice : 249216280
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Note publique d'information : "Psychologists have long understood, social environments profoundly shape our behavior,
sometimes for the better, but often for the worse. Less widely noted is that social
influence is a two-way street: Our environments are in large part themselves a product
of the choices we make. Society embraces regulations that limit physical harm to others,
as when smoking restrictions are defended as protecting bystanders from secondhand
smoke. But we have been slower to endorse parallel steps that discourage harmful social
environments, as when regulators fail to note that the far greater harm caused when
someone becomes a smoker is to make others more likely to smoke. In Under the Influence,
Robert Frank attributes this regulatory asymmetry to the laudable belief that individuals
should accept responsibility for their own behavior. Yet that belief, he argues, is
fully compatible with public policies that encourage supportive social environments.
Most parents hope, for example, that their children won't grow up to become smokers,
bullies, tax cheats, sexual predators, or problem drinkers. But each of these hopes
is less likely to be realized whenever such behaviors become more common. Such injuries
are hard to measure, Frank acknowledges, but that's no reason for policymakers to
ignore them. The good news is that a variety of simple policy measures could foster
more supportive social environments without ushering in the dreaded nanny state or
demanding painful sacrifices from anyone"
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