Effects Of Social Norms Research Articles

Invitations and incentives: a qualitative study of behavioral nudges for primary care screenings in Armenia

BackgroundNon-communicable diseases account for a growing proportion of deaths in Armenia, which require early detection to achieve disease control and prevent complications. To increase rates of screening, demand-side interventions of personalized invitations, descriptive social norms, labeled cash transfers, and conditional cash transfers were tested in a field experiment. Our complementary qualitative study explores factors leading to the decision to attend screening and following through with that decision, and experiences with different intervention components.MethodsInformed by the Health Belief Model as our conceptual framework, we collected eighty in-depth interviews with service users and twenty service providers and analyzed them using open coding and thematic analysis.ResultsAn individual’s decision to screen depends on 1) the perceived need for screening based on how they value their own health and perceive hypertension and diabetes as a harmful but manageable condition, and 2) the perceived utility of a facility-based screening, and whether screening will provide useful information on disease status or care management and is socially acceptable. Following through with the decision to screen depends on their knowledge of and ability to attend screenings, as well as any external motivators such as an invitation or financial incentive.ConclusionsPersonalized invitations from physicians can prompt individuals to reconsider their need for screening and can, along with financial incentives, motivate individuals to follow through with the decision to screen. The effect of descriptive social norms in invitations should be further studied. Efforts to increase preventive screenings as an entry point into primary care in Armenia may benefit from implementation of tailored messages and financial incentives.Trial registrationThe protocol was approved on January 11, 2019 by the Institutional Review Board of the Center of Medical Genetics and Primary Health Care in Armenia (02570094). https://www.socialscienceregistry.org/trials/3776.

Social norms, organizational learning and bribes in emerging economies: a study of foreign invested firms in Vietnam

PurposeDrawing from institutional theory and organizational learning perspectives, the purpose of this paper is to examine how social norms of corruption in home countries and those in host localities influence firm bribery behavior. It also investigates factors that moderate the influence of these norms.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on survey data of foreign invested firms (FIFs) in Vietnam, conducted by the Vietnam Chamber of Commerce and Industry between 2010 and 2018 along with Transparency International’s Corruption Perception Index. The authors run ordinary least squares regressions to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe study provides evidence that social norms of corruption in both home countries and host localities influence firms’ bribery behavior, but their effects are moderated by different sets of factors. Specifically, the use of local leadership augments the impact of the host province’s corruption norms on the firm’s bribe payments. By contrast, the relationship between the home country’s corruption norms and a FIF’s bribe payment is weaker if local leadership is used, and stronger if the FIF’s home country belongs to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.Research limitations/implicationsRepeated cross-sectional data do not allow us to genuinely keep track of the changing roles of home country and host province corruption norms over time. In addition, the use of perception measures for corruption norms is subject to potential biases.Practical implicationsAs the hiring of local executives weakens the impact of the home country’s norms which are embedded in the MNCs’ general practices, a stronger learning measure and regular review of the headquarters’ policies and practices is needed to ensure the overseas branch’s compliance. For policymakers, it is critical to recognize that local corruption plays a role in shaping FIFs’ bribery behavior.Originality/valueWhile the effect of social norms of corruption on firm bribery behavior has been recognized, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that examines the learning processes FIFs may take to make sense of and cope with these norms, and also the first one to specify factors that moderate the influence of these norms.

Family health competence: Attachment, detachment and health practices in the early years of parenthood.

During the first years of a baby's life, parents develop ways of caring that affect the child's health later in life. In this paper, we focus on eating and sleeping, as social practices that mediate between socioeconomic and cultural conditions and health outcomes, such as weight status. We argue for an analysis of what we call 'family health competence', meaning emerging know-hows and resources relevant to healthy living produced, embodied and shared by household members, to understand the development of health practices of first-time parents and their children. In an ethnographic panel study in the Netherlands, we follow households pre-birth until the first child turns age four. Our analysis suggests that across different families, competences develop enabling parents to balance a) attaching and b) detaching in particular ways. Parents learn how to observe and interpret their new-borns, bracket doubt, build trust, manage time pressures and mobilize support networks. These competences are partly class and gender-specific while there is also significant diversity within class and gender. The competence to balance attachment and detachment can be understood as the effect of contradictory social norms and institutional (labour market and care) provisions typical for late-modern welfare states.

MECHANISMS Study: Using Game Theory to Assess the Effects of Social Norms and Social Networks on Adolescent Smoking in Schools-Study Protocol.

This proof of concept study harnesses novel transdisciplinary insights to contrast two school-based smoking prevention interventions among adolescents in the UK and Colombia. We compare schools in these locations because smoking rates and norms are different, in order to better understand social norms based mechanisms of action related to smoking. We aim to: (1) improve the measurement of social norms for smoking behaviors in adolescents and reveal how they spread in schools; (2) to better characterize the mechanisms of action of smoking prevention interventions in schools, learning lessons for future intervention research. The A Stop Smoking in Schools Trial (ASSIST) intervention harnesses peer influence, while the Dead Cool intervention uses classroom pedagogy. Both interventions were originally developed in the UK but culturally adapted for a Colombian setting. In a before and after design, we will obtain psychosocial, friendship, and behavioral data (e.g., attitudes and intentions toward smoking and vaping) from ~300 students in three schools for each intervention in the UK and the same number in Colombia (i.e., ~1,200 participants in total). Pre-intervention, participants take part in a Rule Following task, and in Coordination Games that allow us to assess their judgments about the social appropriateness of a range of smoking-related and unrelated behaviors, and elicit individual sensitivity to social norms. After the interventions, these behavioral economic experiments are repeated, so we can assess how social norms related to smoking have changed, how sensitivity to classroom and school year group norms have changed and how individual changes are related to changes among friends. This Game Theoretic approach allows us to estimate proxies for norms and norm sensitivity parameters and to test for the influence of individual student attributes and their social networks within a Markov Chain Monte Carlo modeling framework. We identify hypothesized mechanisms by triangulating results with qualitative data from participants. The MECHANISMS study is innovative in the interplay of Game Theory and longitudinal social network analytical approaches, and in its transdisciplinary research approach. This study will help us to better understand the mechanisms of smoking prevention interventions in high and middle income settings.

Does theory of planned behaviour play a role in predicting uptake of colorectal cancer screening? A cross-sectional study in Hong Kong

ObjectiveColorectal cancer (CRC) ranked second in terms of cancer mortality worldwide. It is associated with a substantial global disease burden. We aimed to examine whether the theory of planned behaviour...

Target-Oriented Promotion of the Intention for Sustainable Behavior with Social Norms

To date, measures to promote sustainable behavior by influencing attitudes have often not had the expected success. Past research indicates that using social norms to promote sustainable behavior in people with low involvement in environmental protection offers a promising basis to address this problem. In this study, this insight was transferred to the context of two environmental measures at an early stage of development by investigating the effects of social norms on the intention for sustainable behavior in people with a low intention to be involved in environmental protection. Study 1 was conducted in the context of a university project on energy-saving behavior with 606 university members, and Study 2 was carried out in the context of a project on the acceptance of an innovative, sustainable technology with 101 consumers. In both studies, social norms had stronger effects on people with a low intention to be involved in environmental protection. Therefore, using social norms to promote the intention for sustainable behavior among people with a low intention to be involved offers a promising basis for further research and could serve as an approach for designing target-group-specific strategies at early stages in the development of sustainability measures.

Tax evasion and tax morale: A social network analysis

We study the effects of tax morale and social norms on tax evasion when individuals interact in a network. We present a model that incorporates incentives for tax compliance in the form of punishment and fines, tax morale, and reputation for social behaviour. We assume that individuals adjust their tax morale by observing the neighbours' tax morale. We simulate the model for different values of the parameters and show that the steady-state share of taxpayers as opposed to tax-evaders is affected by the probability of finding like-minded peers in the reference group (network integration), the weight that individuals attribute to reputation, and the share of individuals who update their tax morale. Last, we consider the possibility of a fiscal authority using the knowledge of the network structure and targeting ‘central’ individuals. We show that by positively affecting the tax morale of individuals whose influence within the network is high, a fiscal authority can increase tax compliance.

Social Norms and Gender Differences in Labor Force Participation in China

ABSTRACT Since China’s transition to a socialist market system, women’s labor force participation has declined sharply. Using data from the Chinese General Social Survey (CGSS) 2010, the authors re-examine China’s gender gap in labor force participation with a focus on social norms. Probit model estimates of the gender gap in labor force participation probability confirm the contribution of conventional factors such as health and other human capital as important explanations for the resurgent gender gap in China. However, even after extensive controls for human-capital differences, the gap remains mostly unexplained in the data. The Blinder–Oaxaca decomposition analysis confirms that the gender gap in labor force participation is predominantly explained by behavioral differences between women and men. Gender-related community social norms account for 41.4 percent of the unexplained gap. The study results are robust to alternative measures of social norms and additional controls for community characteristics. HIGHLIGHTS Recent studies have examined why women’s labor force participation has declined sharply in post–economic reform China, but research on the effects of social norms has been limited. The gender gap in participation remains mostly unexplained by differences in human capital between women and men. Social norms account for almost half of the unexplained portion of the gender gap in labor force participation. Along with expanding women’s access to education and improving their health, policies should promote favorable attitudes toward women’s employment, particularly during times of economic crisis.

Institutional Change and the Importance of Understanding Shared Mental Models

SUMMARYArthur Denzau and Douglass North’s paper “Shared Mental Models: Ideologies and Institutions” seeks to explain differences in economic performance across time and space recognizing that under conditions of uncertainty actors base their decisions “in part upon […] myths, dogmas, ideologies, and ‘half‐baked’ theories.” The model Denzau and North develop is firmly rooted in the orthodoxy of economics but emphasizes the significance of shared ideologies and ideas in driving economic change. In this paper, we discuss how the legacy of Denzau and North (1994) should be applied to current and future economic inquiries and, in particular, how it might inform work in development economics, behavioral economics, and in the study of the effects of social norms on economic outcomes. We argue that a perspective that emphasizes the role of the economic actor as entrepreneur in the context of shared mental models and institutions can improve economic analysis in those areas of research, which currently focus on the economist as exogenous policy expert.

The Effects of Moral Norms, Social Norms and Pro-Environmental Attitude on Travel Behavior In Malaysia

Public transportation helps to reduce air pollution that creates negative impacts on work performance, work quality, and productivity. The study investigates the effects of moral norms, social norms, and pro-environmental attitudes on the travel behavior of public transport commuters. A survey was carried in Greater Kuala Lumpur, and a total of 904 usable questionnaires were analyzed using Partial Least Squares. The findings showed that a pro-environmental attitude had a weak relationship to travel behavior, but moral norms played a strong instrumental influence when commuters chose public transport. Recommendation and suggestions provided. Keywords: Travel Behavior; Moral Norms; Social Norms; Pro-environmental Attitude. eISSN: 2398-4287© 2020. The Authors. Published for AMER ABRA cE-Bs by e-International Publishing House, Ltd., UK. This is an open access article under the CC BYNC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Peer–review under responsibility of AMER (Association of Malaysian Environment-Behaviour Researchers), ABRA (Association of Behavioural Researchers on Asians) and cE-Bs (Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. DOI: https://doi.org/10.21834/ebpj.v5i14.2196

Fairtrade nexus between just-world beliefs and normative antecedents

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to develop and test a theoretical model of Fairtrade buying behavior that supports Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by addressing the nexus between just-world beliefs, along with the normative influences, self-identity and altruistic values.Design/methodology/approachA conceptual framework on the influence of just-world beliefs for Fairtrade purchase intentions is proposed to analyze the role of just-world beliefs on the effects of normative influences and altruistic values for the intention to purchase Fairtrade products that support SDGs. These conceptualizations are empirically tested on a representative sample of 217 consumers.FindingsJust-world beliefs play a central role in the purchase intention by having a direct effect on purchase intention and an indirect effect mediated by personal norms and self-identity. They partially mediate the effects of altruistic values and social norms on the purchase intention of Fairtrade products that support SDGs.Originality/valueThe research provides a better understanding of the influences of these contextual variables on ethical consumption and contributes to both the theory and practice of how businesses can achieve SDGs. The psychological rationale of just-world beliefs provides a new approach to marketing strategy and communication aimed at increasing purchase intention of Fairtrade products that support the fundamental goals of the UN sustainable development.

Sustained Reductions in Children's Risk Taking from Peer-Communicated Behavioral Safety Norms.

This research examined whether the positive effects of a peer-communicated social norm that reduces risk-taking behaviors persist over time and if a reminder of this peer-communicated safety message has any impact on this outcome. Positive mood in 7- to 9-year olds was induced experimentally and risk taking intentions and behaviors were measured when the child was in a positive and neutral mood state and after they had been exposed to either a safety or neutral peer-communicated social norm message. A few weeks later, half of the participants who experienced the safety social norm message were exposed to a reminder of this message via a slogan and risk-taking measures were taken again when in a heightened positive mood state. Exposure to a safety norm successfully counteracted the increase in risk taking associated with a positive mood state. These effects persisted for several weeks regardless of whether the children were exposed to a reminder. Manipulating peer social norms holds promise as an approach to produce reductions in children's risk taking and these effects persist at least over several weeks.

How social norms affect alcohol dependence: the mediating role of perceived benefits and alcohol identity

PurposeAlthough the association between social norms and alcohol dependence has been noted, how social norms cause alcohol dependence remains unclear. This study thus investigated how social norms affect the perceived benefits of drinking and alcohol identity, which in turn affect alcohol dependence.Design/methodology/approachConvenience sampling was used, and 452 valid questionnaires were collected from alcohol (specifically, beer) consumers over the age of 18; answers were analyzed through structural equation modeling.FindingsSocial norms positively affected the perceived benefits of drinking and alcohol identity; alcohol identity positively affected alcohol dependence; moreover, alcohol identity fully mediated the effects of social norms and the perceived benefits of drinking on alcohol dependence.Originality/valueHow social norms affect alcohol dependence has rarely been studied; thus, the present study has value for integrating the findings in the lines of research on social norms and alcohol dependence. Based on the study results, the authors recommend that policies aimed at discouraging alcohol dependence should focus on mitigating the social pressure to drink and the perceived benefits of drinking as well as labeling others as drinkers.

Voluntary or Forced: Different Effects of Personal and Social Norms on Urban Residents' Environmental Protection Behavior.

It is well known that environmental protection behaviors are influenced by both individual internal motivation and external environmental pressure, but few studies have looked at the two kinds of factors together. In order to study the influence mechanism of these two kinds of factors on the environmental protection behavior of urban residents, especially the difference between these two kinds of factors, we take personal norms and social norms as independent variables into the theoretical model. Results based on survey data of 731 urban residents revealed that personal norms and social norms both are positively associated with environmental protection behavior. Moreover, environmental protection willingness was found to mediate the relationship of personal and social norms with environmental protection behavior. We also found that the direct and indirect influences of personal norms on environmental protection behavior are greater than that of social norms. Further, the study revealed that cost consciousness moderates the relationship between personal norms, environmental protection willingness, and environmental protection behavior. Our results suggest that personal norms have a greater impact on environmental protection behavior than social norms. Therefore, we need to make greater efforts to promote environmental education and cultivate young people’s sense of environmental responsibility from an early age. At the same time, it is necessary to maintain appropriate environmental pressure and reduce the environmental cost in the daily life of residents.

Effect of Social Norm on Consumer Demand: Multiple Constraint Approach

The goal of the study is to understand the role of social norm in purchase decisions where demand is revealed in the form of multiple-discreteness. Consumers are socially engaged in various activities through the expectation from others in their community. Actions or decisions are likely to reflect this influence. This implicit or explicit social norm is revealed as the rules, regulations, and standards that are understood, shared, endorsed, and expected by group members. When consumers’ decisions are in distance from the norm, they come to face discomfort such as shame, guilt, embarrassment, and anxiety. These pressure act as a constraint as opposed to utility in their decision making. In this study, the effect of social norms on consumer demand is captured via multiple constraint model where constraints are not only from budget equation but also from psychological burden induced by the deviation from the norm. The posterior distributions of model parameters were estimated via conjoint study allowing for heterogeneity via hierarchical Bayesian framework. Individual characteristics such as age, gender and work experience are also used as covariates for capturing the observed heterogeneity. The empirical results show the role of social norm as constraint in consumers’ utility maximization. The proposed model accounting for social constraint outperforms the standard budget constraint-only model in terms of model fit. It is found that people with longer job experience tend to be more robust and resistant to the deviation from the norm. Incorporating social norm into the utility model allows for another means to disentangle the reason for no-purchase as ‘not preferred’ and ‘not able to buy’.

Religion, crime, and financial reporting

The literature provides evidence on the separate roles of injunctive and descriptive norms in explaining corporate financial reporting, ignoring that descriptive norms are likely endogenous and partly explained by injunctive norms. We jointly analyze the direct and indirect effects of religious social norms (an injunctive norm) via local crime rates (a descriptive norm) on financial reporting quality. We find that religious social norms relate negatively to corporate earnings management and tax avoidance. We also show that this association is partially explained by crime rates in the firm’s geographical environment, underlining the indirect relation between religious social norms and financial reporting quality. Overall, the study highlights the importance of considering the interrelations between injunctive and descriptive norms when analyzing the effect of norms on corporate decision-making.

The effect of market competition on bribery in emerging economies: An empirical analysis of Vietnamese firms

• We synthesize rent-seeking and norm-based explanations of firm bribery. • In open markets with easy business entry, non-collusive (coercive) forms of bribery prevail. • In restricted markets (due to formal or informal entry barriers), rent-seeking leads to collusive bribery. • Uncertainty increases the benefits of rent-seeking in restricted environments. • Hypotheses are tested on 11 years of survey data of 10,000 businesses in 63 Vietnamese provinces. Studies of firm bribery have not fully examined how market competition conditions the effects of social norms on firms’ bribe payments. We suggest that firms pay bribes to obtain abnormal rents and/or to conform to accepted rules of corruption. These motivations operate differently, depending on the level of market competition. Using data from an annual survey of 10,000 Vietnamese firms between 2006 and 2017, we find that in environments characterized by open competition, bribery is positively associated with long-standing norms in the business social context, while in closed-competition environments, bribe payments are functions of rents that accrue from uncertainty in policy-making.

Contingent effects of social norms on tourists’ pro-environmental behaviours: the role of Chinese traditionality

Social norms are critical drivers of pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) yet vary in their influences across individuals or cultures. This study investigates the contingent effects of social norms on tourists’ PEBs by examining the moderating role of an individual cultural value, i.e. Confucian-based Chinese traditionality, on the mediated relations via personal norm. Using survey data collected from Kulansu island and with structural equation modelling and bootstrap analyses, it revealed that both injunctive and descriptive norms did not exert a direct effect on tourists’ PEBs but an indirect one via personal norm, i.e. personal norm fully mediated the relationship between social norms and PEBs. It also confirmed that Chinese traditionality moderated the mediated relationship between injunctive, but not descriptive, norm and PEBs through personal norm, such that the mediation was stronger for tourists higher, rather than lower, in Chinese traditionality. This study contributes to the literature on the norm-behaviour relationship in a Confucian-based cultural context and offers practical insights into crafting normative appeals in environmental campaigns.

Policy Acceptance of Low-Consumption Governance Approaches: The Effect of Social Norms and Hypocrisy

Tackling over-consumption of resources and associated emissions at the lifestyle level will be crucial to climate change mitigation. Understanding the public acceptability of policy aimed at behaviour change in this domain will help to focus strategy towards effective and targeted solutions. Across two studies (n = 259, 300) we consider how policy approaches at different levels of governance (individual, community, and national) might be influenced by the inducement of hypocrisy and the activation of social norms. We also examine the influence of these experimental manipulations upon behavioural intention to reduce consumption (e.g., repair not replace, avoiding luxuries). Dynamic social norm framing was unsuccessful in producing an effect on policy acceptance or intentions to reduce consumption. Information provision about the impact of individual consumption on global climate change increased support for radical policies at the national level (banning environmentally harmful consumption practices) and the community level (working fewer hours, sharing material products, collaborative food cultivation), yet the inducement of hypocrisy had no additional effect. This is in contrast to individual-level behavioural intentions, where the inducement of hypocrisy decreased intentions to engage in high-consumption behaviour. This paper concludes with implications for low-consumption governance.

Situated Food Safety Risk and the Influence of Social Norms.

Previous studies of risk behavior observed weak or inconsistent relationships between risk perception and risk-taking. One aspect that has often been neglected in such studies is the situational context in which risk behavior is embedded: Even though a person may perceive a behavior as risky, the social norms governing the situation may work as a counteracting force, overriding the influence of risk perception. Three food context studies are reported. In Study 1 (N = 200), we assess how norm strength varies across different social situations, relate the variation in norm strength to the social characteristics of the situation, and identify situations with consistently low and high levels of pressure to comply with the social norm. In Study 2 (N = 502), we investigate how willingness to accept 15 different foods that vary in terms of objective risk relates to perceived risk in situations with low and high pressure to comply with a social norm. In Study 3 (N = 1,200), we test how risk-taking is jointly influenced by the perceived risk associated with the products and the social norms governing the situations in which the products are served. The results indicate that the effects of risk perception and social norm are additive, influencing risk-taking simultaneously but as counteracting forces. Social norm had a slightly stronger absolute effect, leading to a net effect of increased risk-taking. The relationships were stable over different social situations and food safety risks and did not disappear when detailed risk information was presented.