The Limits of Shame
By Ian
While shame -- or social opprobrium -- can be used to curb behavior upsetting to groups, one must still take into consideration the opposing forces. In the case of publicly identifying those homeowners that fail to keep up their properties, one has to ask if the effort and money that would be incurred by the offending homeowner is worth less to them than not having a "Scarlet Letter" signal attached to their property. Judging from some of the places I've lived in and around, this might not always be the case. Not to mention the fact that these people already certainly have some inkling that their place is unlike the rest of the neighborhood in terms of orderliness and cleanliness. The cost of shame would have to be significant to alter the behavior of someone who is already apparently far less concerned with "outward appearances".
One of the reasons I'd argue such a tactic would work is that the makeup social group in the case of homeowners would tend to be fairly constant over time. People move in and out, but not terribly rapidly. The offending homeowner would have to cope with repeatedly interacting with the neighbors he has offended. The less dynamic the change in actors in the social network, the more shame could affect behavior.
As a counter-example to illustrate the point, I cite the near-ubiquity of adult magazines at airport kiosks and bookstores. From the small terminal-side stands for news and candy to the in-house Border's, I could have had my pick of several titles of adult magazines. While Pl4yb0y might have once had some slightly mainstream credit with semi-popular authors publishing short stories in its pages, I imagine such value disappeared with the rise in competition against P3nth0use. Surely these would not be part of the regular offering if, in fact, no one was buying them. But who, I wondered, would sidle up behind a mom and her kids buying some candy and aspirin and in front of a dapper elderly man who still dresses for travel, and lay down the latest copy of any of these publications*? Isn't there a reason adult-material shops are located behind barred windows, or off highway service roads? Simply keeping materials out of windows would serve the public restriction against displaying materials for any child to see. The more stringent measures seem more calculated to serve a clientele eager to keep some sort of anonymity. (Sidenote: And indeed, the demand must be strong enough in airports to support such a range of sellers. That people would frequent the more popular and more crowed Borders over the small cart in an quiet terminal implies such. Even more interesting to me is that the Hotelling effect obtains here as well. Several mobile snack/news carts carrying such materials were located by terminal junctions, where most of the large stores have permanent space rather than gathering in the empty spaces between gates.) The difference, of course, is that whatever shame that exists lasts only briefly, and only in connection to a highly fluid set of people. When waiting in line to buy something from the magazine stand, you don't much expect to see any of these people again. There are few worries, as there would be living in a neighborhood that knows you are the one who refuses to mow your lawn, that interactions would be sustained and repeated.
With a lot of time available waiting for a delayed flight in Houston, this is the sort of thing that keeps my mind occupied.
*Please note: I do not mean to suggest that people who purchase adult magazines should be "ashamed". Rather I here use the term "shame" to express the emotional cost of revealing something potentially embarassingly personal to the outside world through such a purchase. Whether or not one should be ashamed (and I'm on the side of "no", so long as the content is produced free of coercion) is beside the point, since we exist in a world with social institutions that still hold to such mores.
[N.B. Odd spellings of publications, and lack to links thereof, are intended to keep down the amount of unwanted traffic from search engines and spiders.]