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There is an abundant literature on the the impact of laws on individual's behavior and the role of social ties as a determinant of this impact. This paper focuses on this issue. Using data from eight waves of the European Social Survey on the perception by individuals of gay and lesbian rights. We exploit the sequential approval of same-sex marriage among various European countries to identify the change in the individuals' opinion on gay and lesbian rights and the role of the intensity of their ties as a driver of this change. The robustness of our results are tested over the subgroup of immigrants coming from homophobic countries. The economic rationale behind the econometric findings is rationalized through a theoretical setup largely inspired on the dyadic model presented in Calvo-Armengol, Verdier and Zenou (2007). Individuals learn about a social norm through strong ties (family or close friends) and weak ties (outside the family or close friends). Unsurprisingly weak ties tend to promote acceptance of the social norm by individuals who did not share initially this norm. Strong ties promote conformism.
