How did The Tatler encourage standards of good behavior and taste?

The Tatler, launched by Sir Richard Steele and significantly shaped by Joseph Addison, encouraged standards of good behavior and taste by transitioning from a source of news and entertainment to a platform for social and moral reform.12

To promote these ideals, the periodical employed several methods:

• Moral Criticism: The authors actively criticized behaviors they deemed detrimental to society, such as dueling, gambling, rakishness, and coquettishness.1
• Promotion of Virtue: In contrast to these vices, the publication championed virtuous actions, truth, innocence, and honor as the essential ornaments of life.13
• Defining Conduct: It established clear principles for ideal behavior and defined the concepts of a perfect gentleman and gentlewoman.12
• Use of Anecdotes: The periodical utilized numerous stories and anecdotes to illustrate and reinforce the moral codes it advocated.1
• Urbane Style: By writing in a familiar, colloquial, and urbane style, the authors made their reformative intent accessible to a diverse readership, effectively bringing discussions of morality and manners into public spaces like coffee and chocolate houses.142