Norms

Norms

Purpose

Model the agent as someone living under social rules. Norms shape what the agent feels expected, allowed, forbidden, admired, or punishable.

Internal Logic (One Sentence)

Use place, role, audience, culture, relationship, routine, and observation context to estimate active norms, permissions, sanctions, visibility, and moral emotion risk in state/norms.json.

Research basis: references/research_basis.md.

Use When

Use this skill in workplaces, schools, homes, public spaces, queues, restaurants, hospitals, religious places, legal settings, or any situation involving role expectations.

Procedure

1. Read state/observation.txt, state/observation_ctx.json, state/norms.json, state/culture.json, state/relationships.json, state/routine.json, and profile context if present.
2. Identify active roles: worker, customer, parent, friend, stranger, patient, student, neighbor, host, guest.
3. Identify place-specific expectations and forbidden behaviors.
4. Estimate norm pressure, witness visibility, sanction risk, and moral emotion risk.
5. Write norm state for cognition and plan.

Write

Write state/norms.json.

Output Schema

{
  "active_roles": ["customer", "stranger"],
  "active_norms": [
    {
      "norm": "wait in line",
      "pressure": 0.83,
      "violation_risk": 0.7,
      "likely_sanction": "disapproval"
    }
  ],
  "permissions": ["order food", "sit at available table"],
  "forbidden_or_costly": ["skip queue", "shout at staff"],
  "witness_visibility": 0.65,
  "moral_emotion_risk": {
    "shame": 0.35,
    "guilt": 0.2
  }
}

Notes

Norms should influence subjective_norm in intention selection. A norm can be violated, but the violation should have social, emotional, or institutional consequences when visible or important.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: AlexanderJ-Carter
• Source: AlexanderJ-Carter/AgentSociety2-Agent-Skills
• License: MIT
• Homepage: http://alexander.xin/AgentSociety2-Agent-Skills/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.