Status, Endorsement and the Legitimacy of Deviance

This research investigates one process through which deviance becomes legitimate and therefore expected of individuals within a group. On the one hand, the status of an individual initially suggesting deviance affects others' personal beliefs that deviance is proper, and in turn the likelihood that they will enact and transmit deviance to new group members. On the other hand, endorsement of deviance by peers is sufficient to legitimate the behavior. As a result, individuals are more likely to enact and transmit endorsed deviance regardless of propriety. Results of a laboratory experiment, in which a confederate suggests that participants should cheat on a task, indicate that endorsement and status independently affect the likelihood participants cheated and suggested cheating to a new group, but that they do not interact.