Following What People Think We Should Do Versus What People Actually Do

Abstract

This study explored cognitive elaboration as a moderator of the impact of injunctive and descriptive normative messages on behavioral intentions. Participants (N = 246) received a message advocating a student health program that stressed either descriptive norms or injunctive norms under conditions of low elaboration or high elaboration and then responded to a series of behavioral intention questions. To determine whether the effects of type of normative message and elaboration varied across personality traits, participants’ level of self-monitoring and extraversion were measured 1–6 months prior to the experimental session. Analyses revealed a 2-way interaction between message type and elaboration, suggesting that descriptive messages were more successful under low-elaboration conditions, whereas injunctive messages were more successful under high-elaboration conditions. This 2-way interaction was not qualified by a 3-way interaction among extraversion, message type, and elaboration or a 3-way interaction among self-monitoring, message type, and elaboration.