Policy to activate cultural change to amplify policy.

If you were driving down the road in Sweden at 04:50 on September 3, 1967, the Swedish government required you to stop. You then had to move from the left to the right side of the road, and at 05:00 you could continue on your way. Although Sweden invested heavily in preparing for this pivotal 10 minutes, the transition from left to right created some inevitable confusion (1). Nonetheless, the transition to a new equilibrium was fast. Traffic accidents and insurance claims declined immediately after the change, presumably because of extra caution behind the wheel, but they soon returned to normal (2). With a one-time government initiative, Swedes tipped from driving on the left to driving on the right, where they have remained ever since. The rest of us gained a compelling metaphor, arguably too compelling, for how social tipping can support society-wide changes consistent with policy goals. I say “arguably too compelling” because choosing a side of the road is a special problem maximally suited to rapid change. The question is, When does the potential for rapid social tipping extend to other coordination problems that are similar in some ways but different in others? More broadly, can we predict and even control tipping in settings that are typical precisely because they are more complex than choosing the left or right side of the road? Andreoni et al. (3) examine exactly these questions with a theoretical and experimental approach. Apart from basic scientific interest, the questions are relevant across an impressive array of policy domains where social norms, applied cultural evolution, and tipping appear as related mechanisms for behavior change (4, 5). Example domains range from equality, social justice, and health (6, 7) to resource conservation (8, 9) and climate change (10). Choosing a side of … [↵][1]1Email: charles.efferson{at}unil.ch. [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1