Changes In Normative Beliefs Research Articles

Parental Leave Policies, Usage Consequences, and Changing Normative Beliefs: Evidence From a Survey Experiment

In this study, we conceptualize and provide novel empirical evidence on norm-setting effects of family policies by investigating how priming with parental leave policy–related information may alter normative beliefs regarding the gender division of parental leave in Germany. We implemented a survey experiment in two waves of the representative German GESIS Panel in 2019 and 2020. Respondents received one of three short evidence-based information primers about (1) long-term income risks of maternal employment interruptions, (2) nonsignificant paternal wage penalties, or (3) increasing rates of paternal leave usage in Germany, or were allocated to the control group that received no further information before rating the division of parental leave in fictitious couples. We apply ordinary least squares regression models with lagged dependent variables to a sample of 5,362 vignette evaluations nested in 1,548 respondents. Remarkably, we find that the effects of all three priming conditions vary significantly depending on whether respondents are asked to judge situations for couples where women earn more or less than their partners. Our findings mostly point to stronger effects of priming with information on income risks compared with paternal leave usage trends and to more pronounced changes in normative beliefs among childless respondents.

CONSIDER New Mexico: Effects of naloxone training among pharmacists and pharmacy technicians

BackgroundPharmacists serve a critical role in providing health care, especially in medically underserved areas. Despite the opioid crisis and legislation in most states allowing pharmacists to dispense naloxone without a prescription from another provider, pharmacists face multiple barriers to dispensing naloxone. ObjectiveThis study tested the effectiveness of CONSIDER New Mexico, an innovative educational initiative designed to increase naloxone dispensing by pharmacies. MethodsA quasi-experimental study was conducted in New Mexico in 2019-2020. Community pharmacists and pharmacy technicians were recruited from a purposive sample of pharmacies. Data were collected through pre- and postintervention surveys with 65 pharmacists and 44 technicians from 49 pharmacies. Data analysis included hybrid fixed-effects regression models of variables associated with pre-post intervention change in intent to dispense naloxone and generalized least squares with maximum likelihood estimation for pre-post intervention change in naloxone dispensing. ResultsPositive intervention effects were observed for measures of normative beliefs, self-efficacy, and intent to dispense naloxone (P < 0.05). Changes in normative beliefs and self-efficacy were associated with greater intent to offer naloxone to patients (P < 0.05). In addition, the median number of naloxone prescriptions dispensed per month increased 3.5 times after intervention. A statistically significant positive association was observed between the intervention and naloxone dispensing after adjusting for other factors (P < 0.001). Pharmacies providing more than 4 additional health services were more likely to increase naloxone dispensing postintervention than pharmacies offering not more than 2 services (P < 0.01). This difference averaged 19 naloxone prescriptions per month. Estimated change in dispensing postintervention was statistically significantly lower at independent, clinic-based, and other pharmacies where an average of 36 fewer naloxone prescriptions were dispensed per month compared with chain drug stores (P = 0.03). ConclusionThe CONSIDER New Mexico intervention effectively increased self-efficacy, intent to dispense, and naloxone dispensing. Findings will inform future research examining widespread dissemination and implementation of the intervention and the sustainability of intervention effects.

Weight perception among US adults predicts cardiovascular risk when controlling for body fat percentage.

Previous research has revealed that increased obesity prevalence in the US has occurred in concert with an increase in those in overweight and obese BMI categories perceiving their weight as "about right" since the 1980s. Using biological normalcy as a framework, we assess whether individual weight perception is related to the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) when controlling for body fat percentage (BF%). Data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (1999-2006) included weight perception, BF%, covariates, and variables to calculate Framingham Risk Score (CVD risk) among 9489 US Americans aged 20-79 years. Logistic regression revealed that those perceiving themselves to be "overweight" had a significantly higher cardiovascular risk score compared to those considering their weight to be "about right" (OR = 1.54; 95% CI = 1.12-2.11, P = .008) after controlling for BF%, age, gender, ethnicity, poverty-index-ratio, education, family history of myocardial infarction, smoking status, and physical activity. Perceiving one's own weight as "overweight" was significantly associated with increased 10-year risk of a cardiovascular event when compared to those perceiving their weight to be "about right," regardless of body composition. This suggests that recent changes in normative beliefs in response to increased obesity prevalence over the past several decades could play a role in the distribution of CVD risk in the US, whereby perceiving oneself as "about right" rather than "overweight" may result from decreases in internalization of fat stigma.

Psychological Aggression, Attitudes About Violence, Violent Socialization, and Dominance in Dating Relationships.

Psychological aggression is a widespread form of abuse in dating relationships, especially in collectivist societies with ties to patriarchal beliefs. Despite the prevalence of psychological aggression, it has seldom been studied in connection with known antecedents of interpersonal violence, including dominance, attitudes supportive of violence, and violence socialization processes during childhood. The present study sought to test relationships among these variables in young men and women. A total of 500 Mexican undergraduate students in northern Mexico reported on their experiences with psychological aggression, the dominance of a dating partner, and violent socialization during childhood, as well as on their approval of violence within and outside the family. The results indicate that the dominance of a dating partner is directly linked to male and female intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration. Violent socialization and proviolent attitudes appear to be related to female dominance. Female and male psychological aggression victimization was predicted by the participant's own perpetration. In general, a dyadic approach appears to be useful for explaining psychological aggression perpetration and victimization in a collectivist society, in light of recent changes in normative beliefs held by young educated Mexicans. Implications for future research and public policy are discussed.

Children's exposure to violent political conflict stimulates aggression at peers by increasing emotional distress, aggressive script rehearsal, and normative beliefs favoring aggression.

We examine the hypothesis that children's exposure to ethnic-political conflict and violence over the course of a year stimulates their increased aggression toward their own in-group peers in subsequent years. In addition, we examine what social cognitive and emotional processes mediate these effects and how these effects are moderated by gender, age, and ethnic group. To accomplish these aims, we collected three waves of data from 901 Israeli and 600 Palestinian youths (three age cohorts: 8, 11, and 14 years old) and their parents at 1-year intervals. Exposure to ethnic-political violence was correlated with aggression at in-group peers among all age cohorts. Using a cross-lagged structural equation model from Year 1 to Year 3, we found that the relation between exposure and aggression is more plausibly due to exposure to ethnic-political violence stimulating later aggression at peers than vice versa, and this effect was not moderated significantly by gender, age cohort, or ethnic group. Using three-wave structural equation models, we then showed that this effect was significantly mediated by changes in normative beliefs about aggression, aggressive script rehearsal, and emotional distress produced by the exposure. Again the best fitting model did not allow for moderation by gender, age cohort, or ethnic group. The findings are consistent with recent theorizing that exposure to violence leads to changes both in emotional processes promoting aggression and in the acquisition through observational learning of social cognitions promoting aggression.

Changes in smoking-related norms in bars resulting from California's Smoke-Free Workplace Act.

California's Smoke-Free Workplace Act--CA Labor Code Sec. 6404.5(a)--was extended to bars in 1998. This article analyzes changes in normative beliefs and behaviors related to bar smoking in the decade following the adoption of the Act. In a series of studies evaluating the smoke-free workplace law in bars, researchers conducted extensive observations and interviews with bar staff and patrons, health officials, and law enforcement personnel in three California counties. Smoking outside became a normal pause in the social environment and created a new type of bar socializing for outside smokers. Although some bar owners and staff reported initially resenting the responsibility to uphold the law, once norms regarding cigarettes and smoking began changing, bar workers experienced less conflict in upholding the law. Non-smoking behavior within bars also became the normative behavior for bar patrons. California's Smoke-Free Workplace Act has both reflected and encouraged normative beliefs and behaviors related to smoking in bars. The findings indicate that such shifts are possible even in contexts where smoking behaviors and attitudes supporting smoking were deeply entrenched. Recommendations include attending to the synergistic effect of education and policy in effective tobacco control programs.

The cognitive ripple of social norms communications

Social norms marketing has become a widely used technique for promoting pro-social behaviors, however, little is known about the cognitive changes produced by these interventions. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the extent and durability of changes in normative beliefs following a one-shot social norms communication. Participants were surveyed immediately following the intervention, one week later, and one month later. Results showed that (1) normative beliefs spilled over to behaviors and referents not specified in the original message; (2) communication and self-knowledge both contributed to participants’ normative belief estimates; and (3) the change in normative beliefs over the one-month period was consistent with Miller and Prentice’s (1996) theory of normative belief construction. Possible explanations for the spillover effect are discussed.

Identifying and changing the normative beliefs about aggression which lead young Muslim adults to join extremist anti‐Semitic groups in Pakistan

Two studies investigated the role of beliefs about the acceptability of aggression ("normative beliefs") against Jews in determining who would join an extremist group. In Study 1, students in a university in Pakistan (N=144) completed self-report attitude measures, and were subsequently approached by a confederate who asked whether they wanted to join an extremist anti-Semitic organization. Normative beliefs about aggression against Jews were very strong predictors of whether participants agreed to join. In Study 2, participants (N=92) were experimentally assigned to either a brief educational intervention, designed to improve inter-group relations, or to a control group. They also filled in self-report attitude measures pre and post intervention. Participants in the intervention group were much less likely to agree to join the extremist group, and this effect of the intervention on joining was mediated by changes in normative beliefs about aggression against Jews. The results have implications for theories of inter-group aggression and interventions to prevent people from being recruited into extremist groups.

Impact of a school-based peer sexual health intervention on normative beliefs, risk perceptions, and sexual behavior of Zambian adolescents

Purpose To determine whether adolescents' normative beliefs about abstinence and condoms, their personal risk perception, and safer sex practices changed after the implementation of a peer sexual health education intervention implemented in Zambian secondary schools. Methods The peer intervention was implemented during the first week of September 2000 in Lusaka, Zambia. A quasi-experimental, longitudinal panel design was used to evaluate its impact. Three schools were randomly assigned to the intervention condition and two to the control condition. Three rounds of data from male and female adolescents in grades 10 and 11 were collected at baseline in July 2000, at first follow-up in the second half of September 2000, and at second follow-up in early April 2001. A total of 416 respondents aged 14–23 (at baseline) were interviewed in all three survey rounds. A mixed-effects logistic regression growth curve analysis was used to calculate adjusted odds ratios to compare intervention and control groups on the outcome variables. Results Student self-reports showed positive changes in normative beliefs about abstinence immediately after the intervention, and these improvements were largely sustained until 6 months after the intervention. Students became more likely to approve of condom use and to intend using condoms immediately after the intervention, but these positive outcomes could not be sustained during the 6 months that followed the intervention. Normative beliefs regarding condom use took longer to develop: these were only observed at 6 months follow-up. Students reported reductions in multiple regular partnerships. There was no change in condom use. Conclusions A single session school-based peer sexual health intervention resulted in the development of normative beliefs about abstinence that were sustained over a 6-month period. Normative beliefs about condoms took longer to develop. More regular efforts may be required to sustain the approval of, and the intention to use, condoms. The intervention was successful in reducing multiple regular partnerships.

Behavior change from defection to cooperation in a social dilemma: a field study of attitude-behavior consistency in campus parking behavior by motorcyclists

Behavior change by persuasive communications in a social dilemma, in which a university tried to persuade students to park their motorcycles in a designated lot in order to resolve noise problems, was studied by a questionnaire. Hayashi's quantification theory III was applied to variables such as subjective norms, beliefs in the effectiveness of one's cooperation, the perception of campus traffic conditions and attitudes toward one's parking behavior. Factor scores obtained were subjected to a cluster analysis, which, within 105 defectors, yielded three subgroups. Contrary to prediction, subgroups were not different in their cooperation ratio examined 10 months later, but tended to be different in their readiness for acceptance of persuasion and in their intention to cooperate in a social dilemma other than parking. Two mechanisms underlying cooperation were revealed: internalization of prosocial norm, and compliance in which cooperation was unaccompanied by correspondent changes in normative beliefs. The Fishbein model was applicable only to change through internalization. A linear assumption in the Fishbein model between evaluative attitude and behavior should be reexamined in its application to a social dilemma.