Varieties of Normative Consensus

Abstract

The empirical study of consensus has long been impeded by lack of an adequately conceptualized appropriate measurement model. Using the study of social norms as an example, this paper presents such a model based on components of variance. A key feature of the model is an explicit acknowledgment of error variance and its role in generating phenotypical dissensus in empirical data sets. The paper distinguishes among threshold dissensus, a condition in which persons differ in their intensities of adherence to norms, segmented dissensus, in which persons differ in the norms to which they subscribe, and structureless domains, a condition in which individuation in norms applies.