How can overlapping social norms shape corrupt behaviors — and how can practitioners identify them?

Corruption is often influenced not by a single norm, but by multiple, interacting expectations tied to gender, faith, professional culture, and community roles. These overlapping pressures shape how different people experience and engage in corrupt behaviors, yet most anti-corruption efforts still analyze norms in isolation.

This innovative practice brief presents lessons learned from over a year of collaborative research between Besa Global and the Policy Innovation Centre, with contributions from Transparency International – Initiative Madagascar. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in Nigeria and Madagascar, it distills practical insights on how to diagnose interacting norms and offers guidance for practitioners seeking to design more nuanced, context-sensitive anti-corruption strategies.