Normative Misperceptions Research Articles

The distinct role of group-central and group-peripheral norms in taxpaying behaviour

In recent years, a social identity approach has been used to help understand why people do or do not pay tax [see Taylor, 2003; Wenzel, M., 2002. The impact of outcome orientation and justice concerns on tax compliance: the role of taxpayers’ identity. Journal of Applied Psychology 87, 629–645; Wenzel, M., 2004. An analysis of norm processes in tax compliance. Journal of Economic Psychology 25, 213–228; Wenzel, M., 2005. Misperception of social norms about tax compliance: from theory to intervention. Journal of Economic Psychology 26, 862–883; Wenzel, M., 2007. The multiplicity of taxpayer identities and their implications for tax ethics. Law & Policy 29, 31–50]. This research, which has focused almost exclusively on national identity, indicates that the more people identify with a group, the more likely they are to adhere to its tax norms and values. However, conformity to group norms may be more nuanced than this, and depend on (a) the meaning or content of the identity in question [e.g., Turner, J.C., 1999. Some current themes in research on social identity and self-categorization theories. In: Ellemers, N., Spears, R., Doojse, B. (Eds.), Social Identity: Context, Commitment, Content. Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 6–34] and (b) whether the norms and values are central or peripheral to the content of that identity. In line with this idea, two studies explored whether the concept and act of taxpaying are more central to what it means to be a member of one's nation than of one's occupational group. Both studies confirm this expectation. Importantly, the findings also suggest that although occupational groups have different norms and values in relation to pre-tax behaviours (e.g., how to deal with extra income), these too can be peripheral to what it means to a group member. If norms are peripheral to identity content, conformity to such norms may be independent of group identification.

21st birthday celebratory drinking: Evaluation of a personalized normative feedback card intervention.

This research was designed to evaluate a personalized normative feedback birthday card intervention aimed at reducing normative perceptions, alcohol consumption, and negative consequences associated with 21st birthday celebrations among college students (N=281; 59.15% women). Students were randomly assigned to receive or not receive a birthday card about 1 week prior to their 21st birthday. Approximately 1 week following their birthday, students were asked to complete a brief survey concerning their birthday celebration activities. Findings indicated that the birthday card intervention was not successful at reducing drinking or consequences; however, the card did reduce normative misperceptions. Additional findings indicated that many students experienced negative consequences, such as passing out or driving after consuming alcohol. Combined, these findings suggest that prevention is needed for drinking associated with turning 21. However, prevention efforts should consist of more than a birthday card.

Normative Misperceptions of Drinking Among College Students: A Look at the Specific Contexts of Prepartying and Drinking Games

In the collegiate context, misperceptions of student drinking norms are among the most salient predictors of heavy drinking. Despite overall overestimations of peer alcohol use, misperceptions of context-specific behaviors have been infrequently studied. The present study examines students' perceptions of the high-risk behaviors of prepartying and drinking games and investigates the relationship between perceived and actual behaviors. A sample of 524 college students completed an online assessment of actual and perceived alcohol use related to prepartying and drinking games. Quantity and frequency of overall drinking, prepartying, and drinking games were assessed for perceptions of all students at the university, as well as for male and female students separately. Questions also assessed participants' overall drinking, prepartying, and drinking game behaviors. Participants significantly overestimated the prepartying and drinking game behaviors of all students, male students, and female students at their university. For men, perceptions of same-sex prepartying quantity and drinking game frequency and quantity were associated with actual behavior. For women, perceptions of both same-sex and other-sex prepartying quantity were associated with actual behavior. These findings provide preliminary support for the association between context-specific perceived norms and actual prepartying and drinking game behaviors. Addressing these same-sex and opposite-sex norms during interventions may help students reduce their own engagement in these risky behaviors.

Misperceptions about Norm Misperceptions: Descriptive, Injunctive, and Affective ‘Social Norming’ Efforts to Change Health Behaviors

AbstractWe have known for a long time that people are often motivated to conform to the wishes of groups. Such peer influence can shape human behavior through the creation of social norms, and the frequency of some health behaviors (e.g., alcohol use) may depend on the perception of these norms. We discuss the influence of perceived social norms, especially normative misperceptions on health behaviors. We then describe social norms campaigns that are intended to reduce risky health behaviors by ‘debiasing’ perceptions of behavioral norms, and we point out practical problems and faulty theoretical assumptions of such interventions. A better alternative might be to develop interventions that debias misperceptions of injunctive norms or affective norms, although such alternatives have not yet been adequately tested. Still, we present the theoretical grounding for these different approaches and preliminary data suggesting that they could be successful in reducing risky health behaviors.

Live interactive group-specific normative feedback reduces misperceptions and drinking in college students: A randomized cluster trial.

This research evaluated the efficacy of a live and interactive group-specific normative feedback intervention designed to correct misperceptions of alcohol-related group norms and subsequently reduce drinking behavior. Campus organizations (N = 20) containing 1,162 college students were randomly assigned to intervention or assessment-only control conditions. Participants in the intervention condition attended an intervention during their organization's regular standing meeting. Data were gathered in vivo using computerized handheld keypads into which participants entered personal responses to a series of alcohol-related questions assessing perceptions of normative group behavior as well as actual individual behavior. These data were then immediately presented in graphical form to illustrate discrepancies between perceived and actual behavioral group norms. Results indicated that compared with the control group, the intervention group reduced drinking behavior and misperceptions of group norms at 1-month and 2-month follow-ups. Changes in perceived norms mediated the reductions in drinking. Results demonstrate the effectiveness of a novel, technologically advanced, group-based, brief alcohol intervention that can be implemented with entire groups at relatively low cost.

Pluralistic Ignorance About Sex: The Direct and the Indirect Effects of Media Consumption on College Students' Misperception of Sex-Related Peer Norms

The term pluralistic ignorance refers to erroneous beliefs held by a group of individuals about the attitudes or behavior of others. In this study, we examined the degree to which college students in Singapore misconceive their peers’ sexual attitudes and behavior. The data for this study came from a web-based survey involving a random sample of 534 college students in Singapore. The results indicate widespread evidence of pluralistic ignorance; that is, students believed that their peers were significantly more sexually active than was actually the case. The data also suggest that the students formed such erroneous impressions of peers on the basis, in part, of the students’ media consumption and of the students’ own sexual attitudes.

The Misperception of Norms: The Psychology of Bias and the Economics of Equilibrium

Abstract This study combines the psychology of bias and the economics of equilibrium. We focus on two of the most discussed perceptual biases found by psychologists who studied the role social norms in ethical decision making. First, psychologists found a general tendency of people to over-estimate how many other people engage in unethical behavior. We show that this bias causes more people to violate the norm than if the bias were corrected. Second, psychologists found a general tendency of a person to over-estimate how many other people act the same as he does. We show that this bias does not change the number of people who violate the norm, contrary to the predictions of some psychologists. When a person suffers from both biases, they can augment or undermine each other. In either case, we show that supplying accurate information will cause more people to conform to the norm. In general, we show that applying the equilibrium concept to psychological studies improves public policy recommendations by increasing precision in predicting aggregate behavior over time.

Indicated prevention for incoming freshmen: Personalized normative feedback and high-risk drinking

This research evaluated the efficacy of a computerized, freshmen-specific personalized normative feedback (PNF) intervention on reducing alcohol consumption among high-risk drinking freshmen. Students ( N = 316; 53.8% female) completed measures of perceived drinking norms and drinking behavior. After completing the baseline assessment, students were randomly assigned to receive either freshmen-specific PNF that was gender-specific or gender-neutral, or to assessment only control. Findings demonstrated that students exhibited normative misperceptions for typical freshmen drinking behavior and that perceptions of typical same-sex freshmen drinking were positively associated with riskier drinking behavior. At follow-up, students randomly assigned to receive PNF reduced perceptions of typical freshmen drinking behavior and personal drinking behavior relative to those who did not receive PNF. Findings extend previous evaluations of computer-based PNF and suggest that computer-based PNF for incoming freshmen utilizing freshmen-specific norms that are gender-specific may constitute a promising prevention strategy.

Gender-specific Normative Misperceptions of Risky Sexual Behavior and Alcohol-related Risky Sexual Behavior

This research examined gender-specific perceptions of risky sexual behavior norms among college students and their relationship with one’s own sexual behavior. We expected that students would misperceive the risky sexual behavior of their peers and that these perceptions would positively relate to their sexual behavior. Undergraduate students from the United States (N = 687; 57.6% female) completed measures assessing perceived sexual behavior, sexual behavior, and other behaviors (e.g., marijuana use, alcohol consumption). Findings demonstrated that students perceived that others engaged in more risky sexual behavior than they do and that perceived norms were positively associated with one’s own behavior. The incorporation of personalized normative feedback regarding risky sexual behavior into brief interventions aimed at reducing risky sexual behavior is discussed.

Normative Beliefs, Misperceptions, and Heavy Episodic Drinking in a British Student Sample

Numerous studies have demonstrated the existence and effect of normative misperceptions on heavy episodic drinking behavior. However, there has been little work on these processes or application of normative-belief interventions outside the U.S. college system. The aim of the current study, therefore, was to investigate heavy episodic drinking and normative misperceptions in a U.K. university setting. An email containing a link to a survey Web site was distributed to all current undergraduate students at the University of Paisley, Scotland. In addition to age and gender questions, the survey contained items on students' personal behavior and perception of the level of that behavior in three groups of increasing social distance: close friends, other students of the same age, and other people of the same age in U.K. society in general. Completed surveys from 500 respondents were returned. In keeping with previous research, significant correlations were found between the respondents' behavior and the perception of that behavior in others, with beliefs about the most proximal individuals being the most strongly correlated. The majority of respondents were also found to overestimate alcohol consumption in other students. An age effect was noted, in which misperceptions appeared to decrease with age but did not vary between genders. The findings of the study indicate that the normative-belief alcohol consumption processes that have been found on U.S. college campuses also operate in U.K. university settings. This raises the possibility of applying social-norms interventions from the United States to the United Kingdom and potentially elsewhere in the world. Furthermore, the study noted apparent age effects in the degree of misperception, the implications of which are discussed.

Evaluating personal alcohol feedback as a selective prevention for college students with depressed mood

Objective This research evaluated a brief mailed intervention for alcohol use as an adjunct to a brief treatment for college students with depression symptoms. The intervention aimed to correct normative misperceptions and reduce students' drinking and related consequences. Method One hundred seventy seven college students (70% Female) with elevated scores on the Beck Depression Inventory were randomly assigned to intervention or control group. Participants in the intervention were mailed feedback and information detailing their reported alcohol use, moderation strategies, and accurate normative information regarding student drinking. Results Results indicated no main effects of the intervention on drinking or related problems but students receiving feedback showed significant reductions in their perception of drinking norms compared to the control group. Furthermore, students whose normative perceptions reduced showed significant reductions in total drinks per week and total alcohol related problems compared to those whose norms did not reduce. Conclusions Results support the importance of correcting normative perceptions and provide direction for selective prevention of alcohol use and related problems among college students with depressed mood.

Body Image Disturbance and The Social Norms Approach: An Integrative Review of the Literature

This article merges two existing literatures: the body image literature and the social norms literature. Body image disturbance, which is known to be related to the development of eating disorders, continues to be an important area of study, particularly among college women. Perceived norms are known to be related to the occurrence of a variety of behaviors and attitudes, including heavy drinking and body image disturbance. Not only do existing norms influence behavior, but misperceptions regarding actual norms, which occur for a variety of reasons, are known to predict behavior as well. Interventions aimed at correcting normative misperceptions and thereby reducing problematic behaviors have shown promising results. Because normative misperceptions regarding norms for attractive body image predict eating disordered behaviors, applying intervention strategies based on correcting perceptions of the norm may prove to be a fruitful endeavor.

A Successful Social Norms Campaign to Reduce Alcohol Misuse Among College Student-Athletes

This study examines the impact of a social norms intervention to reduce alcohol misuse among student-athletes. The intervention was designed to reduce harmful misperceptions of peer norms and, in turn, reduce personal risk. A comprehensive set of interventions communicating accurate local norms regarding alcohol use targeted student-athletes at an undergraduate college. An anonymous survey of all student-athletes was conducted annually for 3 years (2001: n = 414, 86% response; 2002: n = 373, 85% response; and 2003: n = 353, 79% response). A pre/post comparison of student-athletes was conducted separately for new and ongoing athletes at each time point to isolate any general time period effects from intervention effects. A cross-sectional analysis of student-athletes with varying degrees of program exposure was also performed. The intervention substantially reduced misperceptions of frequent alcohol consumption and high-quantity social drinking as the norm among student-athlete peers. During this same time period, frequent personal consumption, high-quantity consumption, high estimated peak blood alcohol concentrations during social drinking, and negative consequences all declined by 30% or more among ongoing student-athletes after program exposure. In contrast, no significant differences across time were seen for new student-athletes each year with low program exposure. Among student-athletes with the highest level of program exposure, indications of personal misuse were at least 50% less likely on each measure when compared with student-athletes with the lowest level of program exposure. This social norms intervention was highly effective in reducing alcohol misuse in this high-risk collegiate subpopulation by intensively delivering data-based messages about actual peer norms through multiple communication venues.

How Media Contribute to Misperceptions of Social Norms About Sex

In this study we examined how media contribute to college students' erroneous perceptions of peer norms and the consequences of such misperceptions. The data came from a survey of 312 college students. Results indicate that students believed that their peers were significantly more sexually permissive than was actually the case. The data suggested that they formed such erroneous impressions of peers based in part on their perceptions of media influence on peers. Some evidence also indicated that these misperceptions produced a significant impact on male college students, making them more likely to say they would engage in casual sexual activity and engage in it at an earlier stage in dating.

Normative misperceptions and temporal precedence of perceived norms and drinking.

Previous research has shown that students overestimate the drinking of their peers, and that perceived norms are strongly associated with drinking behavior. Explanations for these findings have been based largely on cross-sectional data, precluding the ability to evaluate the stability of normative misperceptions or to disentangle the direction of influence between perceived norms and drinking. The present research was designed to evaluate (1) the stability of normative misperceptions and (2) temporal precedence of perceived norms and drinking. Participants were college students (N = 164; 94 women) who completed assessments of perceived norms and reported behavior for drinking frequency and weekly quantity. Most participants (68%) completed the same measures again two months later. Results indicated large and stable overestimations of peer drinking for frequency and weekly quantity. Results also showed that for weekly quantity, perceived norms predicted later drinking, but drinking also predicted later perceived norms. Results for frequency revealed perceived norms predicted later drinking, but drinking did not predict later perceived norms. These findings underscore the importance of longitudinal designs in evaluating normative influences on drinking. The present findings suggest that normative misperceptions are stable, at least over a relatively short time period. Findings support a mutual influence model of the relationship between perceived norms and drinking quantity but are more strongly associated with conformity explanations for the relationship between perceived norms and drinking frequency. Results are discussed in terms of implications for prevention interventions.

Event- and context-specific normative misperceptions and high-risk drinking: 21st birthday celebrations and football tailgating.

Negative alcohol-related consequences often occur during specific events and in specific contexts (e.g., 21st birthday celebrations and tailgating parties). A lack of available event- and context-specific interventions suggests the need to better understand factors associated with heavy drinking in these contexts, with an eye toward developing specific interventions. The purpose of this research was to lay the foundation for developing personalized normative feedback interventions for 21st birthday celebratory drinking and tailgating drinking by evaluating whether students overestimate norms in these specific contexts, as they do more generally. Perceived descriptive norms and alcohol consumption were assessed at event- and context-specific levels in two studies. Study 1 included 119 students turning 21 years old who reported their 21st birthday drinking behavior and estimated the typical number of drinks consumed by students celebrating their 21st birthday. Study 2 included 140 undergraduates drawn from a stratified random sample who reported their behavior regarding drinking and tailgating and their perceived norms for typical drinking and tailgating behavior. Results from Study 1 revealed that students overestimated peer drinking during 21 st birthday celebrations, and this overestimation was associated with heavier drinking on one's own 21st birthday. In Study 2, students underestimated the percentage of tailgaters who drank but overestimated typical consumption. Overestimation was consistently associated with heavier drinking during tailgating. Successful correction of general normative misperceptions has been shown to reduce drinking in other research. Documentation of normative misperceptions for specific events and contexts provided by these results represents an important step in developing event- and context-specific interventions utilizing specific normative feedback.

Misperceptions of social norms about tax compliance: From theory to intervention

Taxpayers may estimate others’ acceptance of tax evasion as being greater than their own. This self–other discrepancy in tax ethics could undermine people’s tax compliance as they conform to the misperceived social norm. Feedback about the self–other discrepancy could correct the misperception and improve compliance. This approach was first tested in a scenario study with 64 students. Respondents showed the expected self–other discrepancy in tax ethics and feedback about the finding increased their hypothetical compliance. Further results showed that the effect was due to the intervention improving the perception of others’ tax ethics, as expected. Study 2, a field experiment with 1500 Australian taxpayers, replicated the self–other discrepancy and provided taxpayers with information about the result. Compared to control groups, the feedback did not affect work-related expenses claims but significantly reduced other deduction claims.

Social norms and the prevention of alcohol misuse in collegiate contexts.

This article provides a review of conceptual and empirical studies on the role of social norms in college student alcohol use and in prevention strategies to counter misuse. The normative influences of various constituencies serving as reference groups for students are examined as possible factors influencing students' drinking behavior. A review of English language studies was conducted. Parental norms have only modest impact on students once they enter college beyond the residual effects of previously instilled drinking attitudes and religious traditions. Faculty could theoretically provide a positive influence on student drinking behavior, but there is little evidence in the literature that faculty norms and expectations about avoiding alcohol misuse are effectively communicated to students. Although the norms of resident advisers (RAs) should ideally provide a restraint on student alcohol misuse, the positive influence of RAs is limited by their negotiated compromises with students whom they oversee and by their misperceptions of student norms. Research reveals student peer norms to be the strongest influence on students' personal drinking behavior, with the more socially integrated students typically drinking most heavily. The widespread prevalence among students of dramatic misperceptions of peer norms regarding drinking attitudes and behaviors is also a consistent finding. Permissiveness and problem behaviors among peers are overestimated, even in environments where problem drinking rates are relatively high in actuality. These misperceived norms, in turn, have a significant negative effect promoting and exacerbating problem drinking. Interventions to reduce these misperceptions have revealed a substantial positive effect in several pilot studies and campus experiments.

The Efficacy of the Social Norms Approach to Substance Abuse Prevention Applied to Fraternity Men

Students tend to overestimate the amount of alcohol consumed among their peers and often drink to that imaginary level. The social norms strategy, designed to correct norm misperceptions, has been correlated with a decrease in reported consumption in the general college population. However, it has had little or no impact among Greek students, the group that consumes the most alcohol. The authors investigated and subsequently found three possible flaws in the application of the social norms strategy that may account for the failure to decrease binge drinking among fraternity men: there is no predominant, healthy drinking norm in this population; students are influenced more by people within their network(s) than by others; and binge drinking is the norm in this group and may serve to perpetuate the problem. The findings, though preliminary, provide the first step in developing interventions beyond the social norms approach to address binge drinking among fraternity men.

Correction of normative misperceptions: an alcohol abuse prevention program.

Normative misperception refers to the tendency of college students to misperceive campus drinking norms to be more liberal than they actually are. Initial investigations have demonstrated the effectiveness of normative education on reduction of alcohol use in primary and secondary education settings. This study examined the utility of a group program designed to challenge seventy-one male college students' misperceptions of college drinking norms. Participants were enrolled into either a normative education group or a control group representing traditional alcohol education efforts. Participants in the normative education groups demonstrated more accurate perceptions of campus drinking norms and a significant reduction in consequences of alcohol use while those in the control group did not. Changes in normative perceptions were among the strongest contributors to a function discriminating between those who decreased their drinking and those who did not. Results suggest that normative education may be an effective approach to modifying drinking behaviors.