Pressure of Societal Commitment Norm in Iran

Abstract

Abstract   Societal commitment involves sympathy and emotional attachment of actors to society and implies preference for public interest over self-interest. Secondary analysis of the Iranian Social Integration survey data shows that 64.6% of Iranians are socially committed and whenever faced with a dilemma of collective vs. self, they prefer public interest to self-interest and they assume it is expected to do so. On the contrary, 17.3% of the people are not socially committed and prefer their own self-interest according to their own perception of general expectation of others. Also, 18.1% of the people have their own definitions of responsible behavior and their actions are assorted according to their own personal norms. The mean of pressure of societal commitment norm (conscious pressure for responsible behavior) is 62.7(on a 100 base scale) and pressure for responsibility is stronger than irresponsibility