Six sourced studies on how one rule-breaker changes everyone else, from a graffiti experiment that doubled littering and theft to the single dissenter who cut conformity by 80%
What Happens to Group Behavior When One Person Breaks the Rules?
Three tiers, by what they actually measure
The Spread
One visible rule violation signals that breaking the rules is normal, safe, or already underway, so others follow.
The Spiral
Once that permission takes hold, group cooperation can collapse fast, and the right intervention can reverse it just as fast.
The Split
The group's response isn't uniform. Who broke the rule, and what they broke, changes whether the group punishes, imitates, or is freed by it.
Explore the data
With disorder already visible nearby, how many people littered anyway?
Dataset schema
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
case_id | string | Short identifier for the case, e.g. aschally |
case_name | string | Full, human-readable case title |
tier | string | spread, spiral, or split |
metric_label | string | What the figure measures |
metric_value | number | The reported numeric value |
unit | string | percent or cm |
source | string | Study, institution, or database |
source_year | number | Year of fieldwork or publication |
sample_size | string | Reported sample size, where available |
Sourcing & methodology
Every figure traces to a named peer-reviewed study, a named natural experiment, or a named public dataset, never a repeated internet statistic. The Split tier is included specifically because it complicates a simple "rule-breaking is contagious" story, and that complication is documented rather than smoothed over.
Licensing & compliance
This dataset is available for commercial and internal use under a DT Linux data license. Every figure remains attributed to its original source. No respondent-level or personally identifiable data is included anywhere; all figures are published aggregates.
API access
Need these figures inside your own dashboard or product? DT Linux can expose this and other data-briefing datasets over a lightweight API. Reach out at info@dtlinux.com to discuss access.