Project definition
Norms: Justification and Disregard
When acting in a questionable way, how do you handle respectability, rules, and the judgment of onlookers?
Project definition
Justification values an appearance of reasonableness, legality, morality, procedure, or legitimate status, seeking a public defense for the behavior. Disregard relies less on approval from prevailing norms and may openly display boundary crossing, forcefulness, or indifference to judgment.
What to observe
Ask how the action is presented, rather than relying on a single explanation. Who is the audience? What reputational risk does the public account address? Does the actual behavior bear its consequences?
Limits
Justification does not mean genuinely following rules, and Disregard does not mean never using a narrative. Whether norms can actually stop or correct behavior belongs to the five-dimensional concept of resistance to normative restraint; this axis cannot stand in for it.