Consider an odd example of a claim that some behavior is normative rather than merely straightforwardly self-interested. In North America virtually everyone drives on the right side of the road, and in any other nation, on the side that is the norm in that nation. I have asked many people how they explain that action. Almost everyone answers that it is immoral or illegal to drive on the wrong side and moral to drive on the correct side. Of course, that answer from morality is analytically true because it would be murderous to drive on the wrong side. It seems motivationally unlikely, though, that we drive on the legally prescribed side because we would feel immoral if we did not or merely because we are law abiding. Indeed, if someone is stopped by a highway patrol officer for going the wrong way on a divided highway, the driver's first reaction must commonly be gratitude for being saved from a potentially devastating accident. The problem is merely coordination of interests, not moral truths.

DEFINE: Illustrates the distinction between normative behavior and straightforward self-interest through the driving-side example.

Russell Hardin, Trust and Trustworthiness, loc. 421