Experience, Conventions, and Habits

Experience, conventions, and habits act similarly to rules. They provide a guideline on how to decide in a certain situation. They also make the decision of others (to some extent) more predictable.

Let’s consider the following case. There is a rule to stop at a red traffic light. If people don’t stop, they are punished by law. Now, we assume that the law gets canceled, and no punishment is there for crossing a red traffic light.

Still, (many) people would stop if the traffic light is red because it is a convention or the experience showed them that it is a good thing to do so.