The significance of emotions is often implicitly addressed in norm research. Some International Relations (IR) scholars, for example, suggest a regulatory function of emotions when it comes to norm-based behaviour, norm compliance, norm persuasion, and norm contestation. Yet, the literature on norms often takes these affective dynamics for granted without making them explicit. This contribution seeks to address this imbalance by examining the relationship between emotions (as moral value judgements) and norms (as collective expectations about appropriate behaviour). Specifically, we extend the current analytical focus by proposing a framework for the empirical investigation of emotional resonance in norm research. We argue that emotional resonance is crucial to the impact and enforcement of international norms because emotions assign specific value to norms within normative orders. We identify pathways and build bridges between norm research and research on emotions in IR and develop a theoretical model to show how emotional resonance is helpful for explaining failures of norm compliance. The way in which the absence of emotional resonance facilitates non-compliance is illustrated by the example of the Bush administration’s reaction to torture allegations in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo.

Social norms are informal rules for behavior, and are fundamental to all societies. Recently, cultural neuroscience investigating the relation between culture, the brain, and behavior has begun to provide unique insights into the psychological and neural mechanisms underlying social norms and their cultural variations. This chapter offers an integrative review of the literature addressing a number of key questions: Are social norms unique to humans? How do people detect norm violations, punish violators, and comply with norms, and what are the brain functions that support such processes? We also explore what might be culturally universal and culturally specific for each of these processes, and how culture and genes might interact to impact norm-related psychological and neural processes. We conclude with a discussion of exciting frontiers that await investigation in the cultural neuroscience of social norms.