Injunctive Social Norms Research Articles

To eat or not to eat: Following the subtly communicated injunctive social norm

To eat or not to eat: Following the subtly communicated injunctive social norm

How anonymity and norms influence costly support for environmental causes

Social norms are a key driver of pro-environmental action, but their influence may vary by context. An important contextual factor is behavior observability. We employ a laboratory quasi-experiment studying donations to environmental organizations under different levels of donor anonymity and under different levels of injunctive social norms. Decision observability amplifies the effect of norms: donations are 84% higher when observability is added to pro-environmental norms, compared to a setting with pro-environmental norms but anonymous decisions.

Excluding stock from riverbanks for environmental restoration: The influence of social norms, drought, and off-farm income on landholder behaviour

Governments often use voluntary agreements to encourage landholders to adopt environmental practices, such as excluding stock from grazing riverbanks. In Victoria, Australia, government agencies subsidize the adoption of these projects, while landholders are required to continue maintaining stock exclusion indefinitely. In the absence of further financial or legal enforcement, landholder compliance depends on the motivation and decision-making of individual landholders. Social beliefs about the responsibility of landholders to improve the condition of degraded riverine ecosystems, known as social norms, influence farmers to adopt new environmental practices. The influence of social norms on behaviour weakens when people perceived themselves to be constrained. From late 1996 to mid-2010 landholders in Victoria endured more than ten years of drought that has reduced productivity, and income. Drought conditions may influence whether landholders continue to exclude stock over the long-term, despite holding positive social norms. However, behaviour is influenced by perceptions of constraint; landholder perceptions may not reflect drought severity. Perceived drought affectedness may also be related to the amount of income obtained from farm activities. This study examined the relationship between social factors, (including injunctive and descriptive social norms, and symbolic and instrumental social beliefs, perceived drought affectedness, actual drought severity), and the percentage of overall income that landholders obtain from farm activities. A social survey, and assessment of river restoration projects, was conducted with 93 landholders in rural Victoria, Australia. We found that landholders who continue to graze riverbanks hold weaker social norms about excluding stock in drought conditions. Grazing behaviour was explained by social norms, and perceived drought affectedness together. Perceived drought affectedness was best explained by actual drought severity, but also by the amount of income obtained from farming activities, rather than either factor alone. Policy makers should consider using drought relief funding to subsidize the purchase of additional stock feed during droughts to encourage farmers to continue environmental stock exclusion, particularly when farmers rely on farm activities for most of their income.

Netiquette Between Students and Their Lecturers on Facebook: Injunctive and Descriptive Social Norms

There is an ongoing discussion if and how students and lecturers should interact with each other on social networks. In this article, we present an empirical study on the so-called netiquette for Facebook contacts between students and their lecturers (hereinafter called SL-contacts). In addition, we investigated the subjective perception of the majority’s behavior. This enabled a comparison between two different kinds of social norms: the injunctive norms (netiquette) and the descriptive norms (majority). Database was an online survey with 2,849 participants (2,550 students and 299 lecturers). SL-contacts were quite rare in our sample and usually initiated by students. Our results showed that the appropriateness of SL-contacts depends on the individual case. In addition, we found that injunctive and descriptive norms are in line with each other. Overall, our results indicate that there is a common ground of understanding, and SL-contacts are less critical than they might appear.

Social determinants of environmental health: A case of sanitation in rural Jharkhand

An estimated 56% of households in rural India defecated in the open in 2015, making India the most significant contributor to the global sanitation burden. This cross-sectional study uses data collected in 2016 from 499 households in rural Jharkhand to understand the constraints of latrine adoption and drivers of sanitation preferences (plans to adopt toilets and willingness to pay for toilets). Focusing on a region with a large tribal population, the study examines two types of predictors, namely structural factors (objective socioeconomic, sociocultural and ecological characteristics) and psychosocial drivers (perceived unaffordability of toilet, hygiene and sanitation knowledge, perceived health risks, attitudes, both descriptive and injunctive social norms, and perceived water stress). We find that structural constraints related to educational, economic and sociocultural inequalities predict toilet ownership. Low sanitation rates can neither be attributed to a lack of expressed demand nor lack of recognition of the disadvantages of open defecation. Similarly, variations in sanitation preferences are neither explained by differences in hygiene and sanitation knowledge nor by understandings of sanitation health risks. We find that perceived unaffordability, attitudes (perceived benefits of toilet and disadvantages of OD) and perceived descriptive social norms are of key importance. This implies a potential for persuasive strategies that manipulate social norms around sanitation, particularly if they simultaneously address perceptions around financial unaffordability of toilets and around the benefits of toilets. Importantly, however, attempts to change sanitation preferences by acting on forces of social (dis)approval (i.e. through perceived injunctive social norms) may be ineffective and generate negative unintended consequences.

How a smiley protects health: A pilot intervention to improve hand hygiene in hospitals by activating injunctive norms through emoticons.

Hand hygiene practice in hospitals is unfortunately still widely insufficient, even though it is known that transmitting pathogens via hands is the leading cause of healthcare-associated infections. Previous research has shown that improving knowledge, providing feedback on past behaviour and targeting social norms are promising approaches to improve hand hygiene practices. The present field experiment was designed to direct people on when to perform hand hygiene and prevent forgetfulness. This intervention is the first to examine the effect of inducing injunctive social norms via an emoticon-based feedback system on hand hygiene behaviour. Electronic monitoring and feedback devices were installed in hospital patient rooms on top of hand-rub dispensers, next to the doorway, for a period of 17 weeks. In the emoticon condition, screens at the devices activated whenever a person entered or exited the room. Before using the alcohol-based hand-rub dispenser, a frowny face was displayed, indicating that hand hygiene should be performed. If the dispenser was subsequently used, this picture changed to a smiley face to positively reinforce the correct behaviour. Hand hygiene behaviour in the emoticon rooms significantly outperformed the behaviour in three other tested conditions. The strong effect in this field experiment indicates that activating injunctive norms may be a promising approach to improve hand hygiene behaviour. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Expanding the Technology Acceptance Model with the Inclusion of Trust, Social Influence, and Health Valuation to Determine the Predictors of German Users’ Willingness to Continue using a Fitness App: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

ABSTRACTAccording to one market research, fitness or running apps are hugely popular in Germany. Such a trend prompts the question concerning the factors influencing German users’ intention to continue using a specific fitness app. To address the research question, the expanded Technology Acceptance Model (with the addition of trust, social influence, and health valuation) was tested with 476 German users of fitness apps. Structural equation modeling results reveal that respondents’ intention to continue using a specific fitness app is predicated on three factors, namely perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and injunctive social norm. Trust in the app developer and descriptive social norm do not have statistically significant effects on repeat usage intention, but they (alongside perceived ease of use and descriptive social norm) both influence users’ perception of a fitness app’s usefulness. Furthermore, ease of use and both injunctive and descriptive social norms significantly contribute to users’ trust in a fitness app developer.

Normative Influence of Sharing Rumors on Social Network Sites : The Role of RT Request and Number of RTs on Twitter as the Cues of Injunctive and Descriptive Social Norms

Normative Influence of Sharing Rumors on Social Network Sites : The Role of RT Request and Number of RTs on Twitter as the Cues of Injunctive and Descriptive Social Norms

Understanding researchers’ intention to publish in open access journals

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand how attitudes, norms (injunctive and descriptive) and perceived behavioral control (PBC) (capacity and autonomy) influence the intention to publish open access (OA), and how personal innovativeness in information technology affects attitude and PBC.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs an integrated and extended theory of planned behavior (TPB) framework within a cross-sectional survey design. The sample consists of researchers at a Norwegian university, and data are collected digitally via e-mail invitation and analyzed using structural equation modeling.FindingsThis study determines that attitude is the strongest predictor of the intention to publish OA, followed by injunctive and descriptive social norms, and PBC capacity and autonomy. All factors positively influence intention apart from PBC autonomy, which has a negative effect.Research limitations/implicationsPotential limitations include: a relatively small sample size, self-reported data and employing intention, not behavior, as the ultimate dependent variable.Practical implicationsThis research contributes with a deeper understanding of what drives the intention to publish OA research articles, and how innovativeness affects attitudes and PBC autonomy. Support is found for an extended TPB model with decomposed normative and PBC components. This knowledge is essential in creating an impetus for systematic research on OA publishing behavior.Originality/valueTheory-driven research into understanding OA publishing behavior is rare. Decomposing the normative and PBC constructs is uncommon in TPB research, and a novel approach in OA research. Personal innovativeness has not been explored previously in relation to OA publishing.

Using social injunctive norms to nudge users to build green houses / El empleo de normas prescriptivas sociales para animar a los usuarios a construir casas ecológicas

We propose a study that aims to evaluate the impact of social injunctive normative messages on users of a building renovation application. We used software that allowed participants to design renovation projects from an existing building and test different configurations. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the efficiency of injunctive social norms in order to incentivize energy-efficient renovation. We compared three groups varying in the presence or absence of the normative message and its salience. Results showed that compared to the control group, the salient injunctive norm group designs significantly more energy efficient buildings. We also found a marginally significant difference between non-salient injunctive norm and salient injunctive norm groups. Results have several implications for both social norm researchers and designers of similar applications.

Improved parental attitudes and beliefs through stepwise perinatal vaccination education

ABSTRACTThis study examined the effects of providing vaccination education during the perinatal period on Japanese parents' knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about childhood vaccination. A cluster-randomized controlled-trial method was used on a sample of 160 pregnant women recruited from 9 obstetrical sites in Niigata, Japan. The treatment group received a stepwise interactive education intervention, while the control group received a general vaccination leaflet. Changes in parental attitudes toward and beliefs about infant vaccination were assessed on the child's one-month and 6-month birthdays using paper questionnaires. Of the initial 188 participants, 160 (90.4%) completed the final post-survey questionnaire. Scores on injunctive social norms (a morally neutral perception of the behavior of the majority) and descriptive social norms (a moral perception of what individuals should do) significantly increased in the treatment group (p = .02 and p = .01, respectively). There was a significant difference between the 2 groups over time in terms of perceived benefit (efficacy of available preventive actions) (p = .03), but no significant differences in perceived severity (seriousness of a disease outcome), perceived susceptibility (likelihood of getting a disease), perceived benefits, perceived behavioral control, or descriptive social norms between the groups at any time point or in the patterns of change over time (p > .31). Thus, stepwise perinatal vaccination education was found to positively influence maternal attitudes and beliefs about infant vaccination. This study suggests the importance of vaccination education during the perinatal period.

The Relative Influence of Injunctive and Descriptive Social Norms on Methamphetamine, Heroin, and Injection Drug Use Among Homeless Youths: The Impact of Different Referent Groups

The current study assessed the relative influence of both injunctive and descriptive norms in the context of different referent groups (i.e., family, street peers, home-based peers, and staff members) on past 30-day methamphetamine, heroin, and injection drug use behaviors of homeless youth. Cross-sectional data ( N = 911) were collected from three drop-in centers in Los Angeles, California. The study consisted of two parts: a social network interview and a computerized self-administered survey. Multivariate logistic regression models examined the association of objection to drug use from referent groups (injunctive norms; that is, street-based peers, home-based peers, relatives, staff members) and drug use of referent groups (descriptive norms) with youths’ substance use behaviors. Multivariate results indicated that the role of injunctive and descriptive norms varied across the three substance use behaviors and by referent group. Findings indicate the need to carefully consider the diversity of homeless youths’ networks in designing substance use interventions.

Competition between injunctive social norms and conservation priorities gives rise to complex dynamics in a model of forest growth and opinion dynamics

Human and environmental systems are often treated as existing in isolation from one another, whereas in fact they are often two parts of a single, coupled human-environment system. Developing theoretical models of coupled human-environment systems is a continuing area of research, although relatively few of these models are based on differential equations. Here we develop a simple differential equation coupled human-environment system model of forest growth dynamics and conservationist opinion dynamics in a human population. The model assumes logistic growth and harvesting in the forest. Opinion spread in the human population is based on the interplay between conservation values stimulated by forest rarity, and injunctive social norms that tend to support population conformity. We find that injunctive social norms drive the system to the boundaries of phase space, whereas rarity-based conservation priorities drive the system to the interior. The result is complex dynamics including limit cycles and alternative stable states that do not occur if injunctive social norms are absent. We found that the model with injunctive social norms had five possible observable outcomes, whereas the model without social norms had only two stable states. Thus social norms and have dramatic influence in conservation dynamics. We also find that increasing the conservation value of forests is the best way to boost and stabilize forest cover while also boosting conservationist opinion in the population, although for some parameter regimes it can also give rise to long-term oscillations in opinions and forest cover. We conclude that simple models can provide insights and reveal patterns that might be difficult to see with high-dimensional computational models, and therefore should be used more often in research on coupled human-environment systems.

Discussion of: The Effect of Injunctive Social Norms and Dissent on Budget Reporting Honesty

Discussion of: The Effect of Injunctive Social Norms and Dissent on Budget Reporting Honesty

The Effect of Injunctive Social Norms and Dissent on Budget Reporting Honesty

ABSTRACTResearch in budgeting suggests that contextual factors may have a considerable influence on budget reporting honesty. Therefore, the present study investigates managers' honesty in the presence of different social norms. While there are several studies that look at the impact of descriptive social norms (what one actually does) on managerial honesty, injunctive social norms (what one ought to do) have not received a lot of attention in the literature. As concrete actions of peers are rarely observable in the budgeting process, this study focuses on the effect of injunctive norms for honesty/opportunism on budget reporting honesty. Moreover, the role of dissenters from the norm is investigated. The results from a laboratory experiment suggest that injunctive norms can have a considerable influence on managers' budget reporting behavior because many people conform to the preferences of their peer group. However, the effect of injunctive norms decreases substantially when there are minorities that show alternative preferences. With the use of the experimental data, the expected firm profit is calculated under different contracts. As the managers show considerable levels of honesty, a trust contract should be preferred compared to a hurdle contract, which is derived from conventional economic theory. Companies should therefore consider injunctive norms as a possible device to positively affect their managers' honesty and the respective firm profit.

A Randomized-Controlled Trial of Social Norm Interventions to Increase Physical Activity.

Physical activity confers numerous health benefits, yet few adults meet recommended physical activity guidelines. The impact of brief messages providing descriptive and injunctive social norm feedback on physical activity was tested in this conceptual pilot study. Young adults (N=111) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: descriptive norm feedback, descriptive-plus-injunctive norm feedback, or no social feedback (control condition). Participants used pedometers for eight weekdays and recorded their step counts each evening. The descriptive norm group received feedback about the average number of steps taken by group members the previous day. The descriptive-plus-injunctive norm group received feedback about the group average, as well as a sad face if the participant was below the average or a happy face if the participant was above the average. The control group received no feedback throughout the study. By days 7 and 8, the descriptive-plus-injunctive norm group reported significantly more steps relative to the control group, whereas the descriptive norm group showed a trend toward higher step counts relative to the control group. These effects did not differ for participants above versus below the group average at baseline. The combined use of descriptive and injunctive social norms increased physical activity over a short period. This simple feedback strategy has potential for achieving wide reach and dissemination on its own or combined with more comprehensive interventions. This initial evidence can guide larger trials of longer duration. The trial was registered with the ClinicalTrials.gov database (NCT02710201).

Understanding maternal dietary choices during pregnancy: The role of social norms and mindful eating

IntroductionSerious health complications associated with excessive weight have been documented for pregnant women and their babies during pregnancy, birth and beyond. Whilst research has focused on identifying particular foods that can be either detrimental or essential for the developing baby, pregnant women's food choices are likely determined by broader considerations. This study examined social influences as represented in reports of descriptive and injunctive social norms related to healthy eating during pregnancy, and individual differences in mindfulness while eating, as important potential correlates of pregnant women's self-reported diet. MethodsPregnant women (N = 139) completed a questionnaire that measured self-reported consumption of healthy and unhealthy foods, descriptive and injunctive norms related to healthy eating during pregnancy and the Mindful Eating Questionnaire (MEQ). Hierarchical multiple regressions were conducted to assess the extent to which norms and mindful eating accounted for variance in consumption of both foods. ResultsNo significant associations were observed between perceived social norms related to diet during pregnancy and self-reported dietary behaviour. Mindful eating was found to play a role in pregnant women's eating behaviour, with the awareness subscale of the MEQ significantly associated with healthy eating and the emotional subscale associated with unhealthy eating. Age was also associated with consumption of unhealthy foods; younger pregnant women reported consuming more unhealthy snacks and fast food meals. ConclusionsThe associations between mindful eating and dietary behaviour suggests that improving mindfulness related to food consumption before and during pregnancy may provide a strategy to address excessive gestational weight gain.

Understanding social norms and violence in childhood: theoretical underpinnings and strategies for intervention

Violence in childhood is a widespread human rights violation that crosses cultural, social and economic lines. Social norms, the shared perceptions about others that exist within social groups, are a critical driver that can either prevent or perpetuate violence in childhood. This review defines injunctive and descriptive social norms and lays out a conceptual framework for the relationship between social norms and violence in childhood, including the forces shaping social norms, the mechanisms through which these norms influence violence in childhood (e.g. fear of social sanctions, internalization of normative behavior), and the drivers and maintainers of norms related to violence in childhood. It further provides a review of theory and evidence-based practices for shifting these social norms including strategic approaches (targeting social norms directly, changing attitudes to shift social norms, and changing behavior to shift social norms), core principles (e.g. using public health frameworks), and intervention strategies (e.g. engaging bystanders, involving stakeholders, using combination prevention). As a key driver of violence in childhood, social norms should be an integral component of any comprehensive effort to mitigate this threat to human rights. Understanding how people’s perceptions are shaped, propagated, and, ultimately, altered is crucial to preventing violence in childhood.

Social Norms, Behavioral Payment Programs, and Cooperative Behaviors: Toward a Theory of Financial Incentives in Normative Systems

Descriptive and injunctive social norms communicated among groups are known to influence behavior, yet little is known about how they evolve over time and how financial incentives influence norms. This article tests hypotheses about the ways in which monetary incentives can disrupt normative impact while facilitating cooperative behavior. The results of a public goods experiment indicate that the presence of a financial incentive for behavior can reduce the impact of perceived descriptive norms on behavior, and this reduction continues once the incentive is removed. The findings show that group identification enhances the effects of perceived descriptive norms on contribution behavior. The study results form the basis for theory building on the role of financial incentives in normative systems (FINS).

The role of message strategies in promoting eco-friendly accommodations

Purpose This paper aims to examine how different levels of message appeals, message sources and social norms influence the purchase (i.e. booking) intention of eco-accommodations. Design/methodology/approach The proposed hypothesis was tested using a 2 (message appeal; rational vs emotional) × 2 (message source; expert vs blogger) × 2 (social norm; injunctive vs descriptive) between-subject experimental online design. Findings Advertising appeals and social norms are major predictors of eco-accommodation’s ad effectiveness and message appeals, sources and social norms, and their classifications interrelate with each other. The highest intention to purchase an eco-accommodation was found for a promotional message, which is sent by an expert, expresses a rational appeal and includes a descriptive social norm. Perceived emotional value in contrast was increased with a blogger statement including an emotional appeal and an injunctive social norm. Research limitations/implications The used experiment only focused on one product, namely, eco-friendly accommodations. The impacts of different message contents might vary as a function of the promoted product. Practical implications To develop persuasive messages which combine all three message contents, experts should craft messages with rational characteristics and address a descriptive social norm. Originality/value Although consumers show a desire to buy eco-friendly tourism products, it seems that supply actually overweighs demand. As research in the field of eco-accommodations is still limited, this study examines the role of different combined promotional message contents to further clarify the apparent gap in green consumption.