Ethical relativists and ethical absolutists are compared with regard to their acceptance and observance of certain social norms. The relativists do not appear to exhibit a greater degree of anomia than absolutists in terms of any of the following indexes: difficulty in evaluating actions, a sense of making too many exceptions to principles, failure to live up to verbally accepted norms, or general rejection of norms. Relativists are less likely to accept ascetic norms which stem directly from an absolutistic religious tradition, but there is a core of generally accepted social norms which govern both the relativists and the absolutists. At least among educated and predominantly mioddle-class American young people, ethical absolutism does not essential to the efficacy of social norms.