31 Oct Trick or Treaters as Norm Entrepreneurs
Today is Halloween in the U.S. and some kids will be going door to door dressed as norm entrepreneurs. Not that they will be dressed up as Nobel laureates (though some may…) but rather that many kids throughout the U.S. will take pasrt in reverse trick or treating, a project to increase awareness among Americans of forced child labor on many of the farms that provide cocoa to large chocolate manufacturers.
Kids participating in reverse trick or treating will distribute information cards about child labor in the cocoa industry at the houses they visit. They will even give out samples of Fair Trade Certified chocolates. Hopefully, this project will not only educate the public but also help spur a shift to purchasing chocolate products that are not the result of abusive labor practices. The goal is to reach 250,000 households by the end of today.
I hope it works but I fully realize how difficult the process of norm diffusion can be. Because, although my kids (dressed as Asokha from the Clone Wars and the White Power Ranger) will be handing out Fair Trade cards and chocolate samples, in writing this I realize that I will be giving out some candy at home that has been made by the usual corporate suspects (as well as organic lollipops and pretzels, which have not). I guess norm internalization must begin at home.
I have to confess… this is one area where I’d be happy to internalize any contraband that might turn up.
Excellent … my sixteen year old is beyond trick or treating, and the night of her birthday a week ago, she waited until my wife was asleep and said, Can we go to the DMV and get my permit tomorrow ??? Urgh………. But although the houses on our cul de sac have lights and decorations and stuff, we don’t seem to get a lot of kids. My theory is that the houses are so inviting, they are starting to resemble Hansel and Gretel’s gingerbread house, and the kids are getting the message … ‘We love children – and eat them’.
ps. and then i will be quiet. One of my students told me she was planning on attending the halloween party as a … Naked Short Seller, now that she had learned the term on Professor Anderson’s finance vocabulary quiz. I definitely did not want to inquire exactly what this would entail, but some how I feel like I am Contributing to Vice through Corporate Finance.
Fantastic!