Victor Pinchuk Foundation hosts discussion of “How Do International Norms Work? A Conversation With Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker” on the occasion of WEF 2025

Victor Pinchuk Foundation hosted a discussion titled, “How Do International Norms Work? A Conversation With Professor of Psychology Steven Pinker”, during WEF in Davos (Switzerland). The event was held as a part of the project ‘YOUR COUNTRY FIRST – WIN WITH US’, organized by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the PinchukArtCentre in cooperation with the Office of the President of Ukraine. The project, which combines an ongoing discussion program and an exhibition, is an immersive intellectual and visual experience, and a space for dialogue and action.

Interviewed by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, Editor in Chief, Foreign Affairs, Dr. Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, spoke to a packed room about how international norms work, what a norm is, why humans tend to stick to them, and what happens when a norm is breached.

Asked by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, Editor in Chief, Foreign Affairs, to describe what norms are, Dr. Steven Pinker, Johnstone Family Professor of Psychology, Harvard University, said: “A lot of our social life is governed by behavior. There are standards of behavior, what you're permitted or not permitted to do, which are common knowledge.

"There are countless norms like this. For example, using paper currency – there may or not be a pile of gold in Fort Knox – but even though we no longer use the gold standard we still accept pieces of paper in exchange for goods or services. Another one, driving on the right vs. on the left. It doesn’t matter which, it matters that everyone agrees on which one to use. It is in everyone’s interest to obey the norm. Social norms – for instance, the parts of body that you cover up on the beach, what jokes you tell, etc. – can change over time – but when there is change, everyone must accept it."

Dr. Pinker continued: “How do we ensure norms work? It’s through coordination equilibria, a focal point of common knowledge that everyone can abide by. I'll give you a concrete example. When I was an undergraduate student, people smoked in class. The professor smoked. Students smoked. It was horrible. You could ask people to stop it, and they would kind of swear at you because it was their right to smoke. Then smoking was outlawed, but there weren't smoking places. Rather, there were ‘No smoking’ signs, and if someone smoked, I could tap them on the knee, point to the sign, and I would win. Since both of us knew that that was the new norm, we could both agree, because the costs of the argument were greater for the smoker than the cost of going without a cigarette.”

Dr. Pinker continued further: “There is resistance to the idea that something as ‘airy fairy’ as a norm has a causal effect on whether missiles fly or tanks move. I am a cognitive psychologist; so for me, the idea that coordinated states in people's minds can have causal effects is not at all mystical or mysterious. You've got brains. We communicate with each other. Certain ideas become shared, and there is nothing mysterious about that. So, to bring us to today’s conversation, the invasion of Ukraine and why it was so shocking – it’s a war between countries and a war of conquest, not a civil war. Trying to take a country by force is a breach of the norms agreed at the founding of the United Nations.”

“It’s very hard to know what went on in Putin's mind, but the immediate reaction of the world was shock. During the build-up, there were voices saying, ‘This is just a show of force. It's a bargaining chip.’ The idea that you try to change borders by conquest just didn't happen, especially among more or less developed countries. So why did he think he’d get away with that? He thought that he'd get away with more than he did get away with.”

Daniel Kurtz-Phelan said: “Let’s talk about Trump – some of the ‘jokes’ he’s made about Greenland and Panama. He seems to have a similar worldview to Putin and Xi Jinping. To what extent does the US stepping away from its normal role affect the norm?”

Dr. Pinker commented: “How seriously does Trump mean it? People who are ‘bad boys’ often deliberately push norms to draw attention to themselves. How much will they really do? The optimistic view would be that going back to a world that led to World War I, let alone World War II, is scary enough that, when it comes down to it, countries will step back from the brink. The pessimistic view is that's how the norm unravels. One contrast between Trump last time and Trump this time is that you had many more powerful, eloquent voices for the old order, the normative order last time around than you do now. It's just a weakness to these kinds of governments.”