Laws influence perceptions of reality and thinking

Humans are social creatures. Most everything non-trivial can affect how we perceive reality and how we think about it. That applies to laws.

Perplexity:

Q: Do any laws influence thinking? 

A: There is evidence that laws can influence thinking and moral attitudes in several ways:

1. Changing perceptions of social norms: Laws can affect how people perceive social norms around certain behaviors. A study found that the introduction of lockdown laws during the COVID-19 pandemic helped correct misperceptions about prevailing social norms regarding social distancing measures.

2. Shaping moral attitudes: Laws can influence moral attitudes by recharacterizing previously harmless behaviors as problematic, signaling moral approval for certain actions, or developing a reputation for justice. For example, anti-discrimination laws can change how people view discriminatory practices.

3. Providing information: Laws can act as a source of information about prevailing social values, which in turn shapes people's thinking about what is socially acceptable or desirable.

4. Affecting personal norms: Some studies have found that laws can shift personal norms and beliefs about the appropriateness of certain behaviors.

5. Impacting thinking skills: One study found that education on the rule of law was associated with increases in students' thinking skills and self-assessment of adherence to the rule of law.

6. Legitimacy and procedural justice: When the legal system is perceived as promoting justice and using fair procedures, people are more likely to internalize its principles and comply with laws in general.

However, it's important to note that the effectiveness of laws in influencing thinking depends on various factors:

• Whether the law targets attitudes central to cultural identities
• The level of underlying consensus or disagreement about the behavior
• Whether the law aims to change the meaning of behaviors or just the behaviors themselves
• How well the law is communicated to the target group

Laws can change social norms in several ways. They can change behavior and norms. Laws that change material payoffs or incentives affect people's behavior, which in turn shifts the descriptive social norms (what people typically do) over time. The same applies to morals. Laws can influence moral attitudes by recharacterizing previously harmless behaviors as problematic or by signaling moral approval or disapproval for targeted behaviors or actions.

Social engineering via changing laws is core strategy for America's radical right authoritarian wealth and power movement. The authoritarian elites intend to completely socially re-engineer the US from a secular, pluralistic democracy operating under the rule of law, to a bigoted, intolerant authoritarian kleptocratic state with limited or no rule of law for the elites. But rest assured, there will be plenty of iron fist law for the rest of us.