Norm Manipulation Research Articles

Effectiveness and context dependency of social norm interventions: five field experiments on nudging pro-environmental and pro-social behavior.

Social norm interventions hold the potential to change people's behavior. Five field experiments (N = 1,163) examined the effects of a simple and easily realizable social norm nudge based on the social media format "Be like Bill." The nudge consisted of a stick figure named Toni that communicated descriptive and injunctive norms regarding pro-environmental or pro-social behaviors. Nudge conditions were compared to no-intervention control conditions. Experiment 1 (N = 179) focused on paper towel consumption in a women's restroom at a German university. The nudge condition used less paper towels than the control condition, d = 0.48. Experiment 2 (N = 183) replicated this result (d = 0.32) in a more diverse setting of a women's restroom at a German Christmas market. Experiment 3 (N = 250) examined differences in the effects of prescriptive (i.e., 'do-norm') versus proscriptive (i.e., 'do not-norm') social norms on paper towel consumption again in a university women's restroom. The effectiveness of both social norm nudge conditions was shown in comparison to the control condition (d = 0.46; d = 0.40), while the prescriptive and proscriptive social norm manipulations did not differ. Experiment 4 (N = 206) applied the nudging approach to the use of plastic lids in a coffee shop, where no effect was found. Finally, Experiment 5 (N = 345) focused on the pro-social behavior of mask wearing in a bakery toward the end of the Covid-19 pandemic restrictions in Germany. In the nudge condition, more visitors put on face masks compared to the control group, d = 0.39. Limitations and contextual factors regarding the applicability of our social norm nudge are discussed.

MOTIVATIONAL FACTOR AND CONSTRAINTS IN ADOPTION OF POTATO CUTIVATION TECHOLOGY BY POTATO GROWERS UNDER CONTRACT FARMING

Most of the farm operators being small and marginal farmers in India, there are problems in getting quality raw material for processing, marketing, and distribution, especially in perishable high value crops but contract farming which was restricted, largely, to seed production earlier, spread to perishable produce and has now become the dominant and growing mode of raw material production and procurement co-ordination among the processors and fresh produce market and exporters. Potato is very important perishable high value crop in North Gujarat Agro-climatic zone of Gujarat state with the cultivating area of 97,204 hector in six districts of North Gujarat (Anon.2014-15). Therefore, the present investigation was conducted in the North Gujarat Agro climatic Zone of Gujarat state. Two districts viz., Banaskantha and Sabarkantha occupy the highest area under potato cultivation in North Gujarat and hence, were selected purposively for study. Ten potato growers were randomly selected from twenty villages. In all, 200 contracting potato growers were selected for the study. Important motivated factors farmers toward contract farming were; assured price, price stability, no tension of marketing, technical advice to control pests and diseases, no cash payment for seed. Majority (78.00%) of the potato growers had medium to high level of adoption regarding potato cultivation technology. Major constraints faced by potato growers in adoption of potato cultivation technology under contract farming were; high rejection rate, low contract price, high cost of inputs given by contracting company, poor quality seed supply by company and manipulation of norms by firm. Important suggestions expressed by the potato growers were; provision of supportive price, quality seed to be provided by company, government intervention for making strict laws to make legal contracts and technical advice to control pests and diseases.

Social Norms in Cervical Cancer Screening.

Cancer screening aims to check the body for cancer before symptoms develop. Social norms theory suggests people falsely perceive the attitudes and/or behaviours of similar others to be different from their own and correcting these perceptions can lead to behaviour change. Across two studies, we tested if women underestimate peer levels of cervical screening behaviour and whether a social norms manipulation increases intention to attend cervical cancer screening. In study 1, participants completed a survey on cervical cancer screening norms. In study 2, participants were randomised to receive no norm information, norm information, or norm information plus statement on value of norms in decision making. In study 1, participant estimates of peer level of cervical screening behaviour were significantly lower than nationally reported levels. In study 2, a social norm plus value statement intervention led to stronger intentions to attend screening. This effect was consistent across demographic factors and screening status. Participants significantly underestimate rates of cervical screening behaviour in their peers. A brief, online social norms plus values manipulation increased intentions to attend cervical cancer screening across all groups.

“Safe Legal Pathways” or New Colonial Frontiers? A Critical Analysis of European Intervention in the Sahel and the Creation of Anomalous Legal Zones

Abstract This article critiques the increasingly popular concept of the “safe legal pathway” in refugee politics, policy and law, using European engagement and intervention in the Sahel as its primary case study. It draws upon neo-colonial studies, necropolitics, border studies and the legal literature on sovereignty and extraterritoriality to explore the function, structure, and import of the “safe legal pathway”, and its compatibility with contemporary understandings of international legal history and argumentation. Divided into four sections, the article focuses on the drivers behind Europe’s migration-development-security objectives in the Sahelout of which the pathways discourse emerges, the EU’s concomitant insistence on criminalising the illusive “people smuggling business model”, and the role which the traditional tropes of sovereignty, territory, and civilisation play in determining policy parameters. Noting the multidirectional nature and multifunctional purposes of pathways, and focusing on the policing of migrant communities both within and outside Europe, this article provides a comprehensive and critical overview of the nature, structure, function, and regulation of the pathway, its susceptibility to being leveraged for the commodification, extraction, discipline and transformation of non-European bodies and narratives, and its place in the creation of differentiated, suspended, and anomalous legal zones for the transfer and manipulation of global norms.

Weakening the ideological immune system: can debiasing techniques reduce confirmation bias?

ABSTRACT Psychologists have identified confirmation bias as a contributor to conflict and ideological extremism. However, the efficacy of social science’s existing arsenal of debiasing techniques remains largely unknown, and the extant positive findings have often been inconsistent and are in need of independent replication. In this registered report, we empirically tested the efficacy of three cognitive debiasing techniques in mitigating confirmation bias: consider-the-opposite, psychoeducation about bias, and social norms manipulation. In the control group, participants exhibited two manifestations of confirmation bias: selective exposure and biased assimilation. When it came to reducing these biases, we found evidence that the social norms technique reduced selective exposure relative to the control group, but little evidence that this was the case for the consider-the-opposite or psychoeducation techniques was found. None of the debiasing strategies significantly reduced biased assimilation relative to the control group. Comparing these strategies provides theoretical advancement in the processes that give rise to confirmation bias, and moreover, these results help to identify a promising technique to serve as the foundation for debiasing interventions, namely social norms interventions.

Climatic apocalypse in Roman Ehrlich's "Malé"

The highly relevant topic of current environmental disasters and the climatic apocalypse is considered within modern German-language ecocriticism with a particular focus on the phenomenon of "catastrophe without event" (Eva Horn) and the connection between apocalypse and utopia. In this respect, fictional depictions of environmental disasters appear important, enabling the rethinking of emergencies caused by said disasters and provoking a confrontation with specific reality. The objective of the study is to outline contemporary environmental crisis experience summarized on the example of shared reality of Malé in the eponymous novel of 2020 by the contemporary German novelist Roman Ehrlich. The study aims to fulfill the following tasks: representation of the ecological world view of a contemporary German author Roman Ehrlich; identification of the literary semantics of ecological apocalypse; analysis of Malé as a novel with enshrined ecocritical ideas. The research is based on the principles of culturological literary studies combined with ecocriticism. The novelty of research lies in the use of ecocriticism principles in the analysis of the novel by the German writer to demonstrate the active role of human beings in organization and disorganization of the world as well as the helplessness in the face of mighty nature, the vast spaces which stop being living spaces, losing this quality to forces which evade monitoring, control and use. Thus, the topic of the novel is the contemporary world in decline which, for the German writer, is embodied in one of the most attractive resorts on the planet - the Maldives. Mass tourism, environmental pollution (of the ocean in particular), manipulation of ethical and moral norms, and global warming have resulted in exact and rapid negative changes that threaten the islands' existence. It has been established that Roman Ehrlich shows our daily life as a simulated state of security. While witnessing the looming disaster, islanders get immersed in limitless free entertainment, boredom and fundamental statelessness. The author avoids patronizing notes. The characters' helplessness in the face of the apocalypse is reflected in the novel via the inability to formulate an explanatory narrative position regarding the catastrophe. The author follows the idea of essential loss of convincing narrative on social achievements or losses. Roman Ehrlich employs distinctly distant language when describing the disaster and uses artistic potential to play it out. Analysis of the novel stimulates conversation about the modern ecological crisis and the response of modern people to it, who, on the one hand, contributed significantly to the current critical state and, on the other hand, are its direct embodiment.

NATIONAL AGENCY FOR QUALITY ASSURANCE OF HIGHER EDUCATION AS A SUBJECT OF AUTHORITY (PARADOXES OF THE NATIONAL LEGAL SYSTEM)

The article reveals the shortcomings of the constitutional and legal regulation of the sys­tem of state authorities, among which the National Agency for Quality Assurance of Higher Education occupies a special place. Attention is focused on the fact that the imbalance of the constitutional and legal regulation of the foundations of the functioning of the state can be revealed through the analysis of the problems of implementing in practice the principle of dividing state power into three branches - legislative, executive and judicial or through the analysis of the legal status of the state body as a subject of power. Within this publication, both scientific approaches were combined, namely, important problems of the formation and functioning of state authorities and the paradoxical legal regulation of the status of the National Agency for Quality Assurance of Higher Education were revealed. It is emphasized that, firstly, constitutional and legal regulation not only lags behind real changes in society, but is also ig­nored in reforms at the national and regional levels, secondly, legal science is beginning to be filled with ideological attitudes that prevent an objective look at the processes , taking place in law, thirdly, the National Agency is the subject of authority, and therefore must meet all the attributes of the latter. The opinion is substantiated that the activity of the National Agency creates favorable conditions for the flourishing of formalism in institutions of higher educa­tion, which distracts specialists in the field of education from their main professional activities - teaching and research. The more formalism there is in the educational and scientific activities of institutions of higher education, the less room is left for training, education and formation of specialists in their field. It was established that manipulation of constitutional norms, ignoring the requirements of the Constitution of Ukraine and arbitrary interpretation of constitutional provisions led to the imbalance of the constitutional and legal regulation of the foundations of the functioning of the state. It has been proven that the National Agency for Quality Assurance of Higher Education has a legal status that is incompatible with the general constitutional prin­ciples of the functioning of state authorities: 1) it does not belong to the legislative, executive and judicial authorities; 2) The Constitution of Ukraine does not provide for the grounds and procedure for creating such bodies. Taking into account the peculiarities of the constitutional and legal regulation of the foundations of the formation of the system of state bodies, it was concluded that the National Agency is an unconstitutional collegial body that unconstitution­ally carries out its activities to ensure the quality of higher education in Ukraine.

From the Politics of Forgetting to the Ethics of Remembering: The Postcolonial Sublime in J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians

J. M. Coetzee’s Waiting for the Barbarians explores the possibility and limits of rationalizing and dominating the ‘other’ through an experience of dislocation. This article argues that the experience of topographic and aesthetic dislocation has the power to transform the Magistrate’s ethical standards in relation to the ‘other’. The novel unwinds a space in which to explore the postcolonial sublime, in terms of which the tension between the self and other is concealed yet, in the progress of the narrative, a politics of forgetting gives way to the ethics of remembrance. This article treats aesthetics as a discursive field and the novel as an instance of an allegorical mode. It intends to explain how manipulation of aesthetic norms can become politically interventionist and make the formulation of the postcolonial sublime an ethical obligation.

Intergroup Sensitivity and Promoting Sustainable Consumption: Meat Eaters Reject Vegans’ Call for a Plant-Based Diet

Reducing meat consumption can make immediate contributions to fighting the climate crisis. A growing minority adheres to meat-free diets and could convince others to follow suit. We argue, however, that recipients’ social identification as meat eaters may impede the effectiveness of such calls (i.e., an intergroup sensitivity effect based on dietary groups). Indeed, meat eaters in our experiment (N = 260) were more likely to reject calls for dietary change from a vegan than from a fellow meat eater. This effect was also evidenced in evaluations of and engagement with an initiative to promote a vegan diet (“Veganuary”), providing some indication for behavioral impact. In contrast, our societal dietary norm manipulation had no consistent effects on observed outcomes. Exploratory moderation analyses show a limited impact of participants’ social identification as meat eaters but highlight the role of peoples’ general willingness to engage in environmentally friendly behavior. We discuss theoretical and practical implications, including how our results challenge existing approaches to promoting a meat-reduced diet.

The Role of Dynamic Social Norms in Promoting the Internalization of Sportspersonship Behaviors and Values and Psychological Well-Being in Ice Hockey.

Conducted among parents of young ice hockey players, this field experiment tested if making salient increasingly popular (i.e., dynamic) social norms that promote sportspersonship, learning, and having fun in sports, increases parents’ own self-determined endorsement of these behaviors and values, improves their psychological well-being, and impacts on their children’s on-ice behaviors. Hockey parents (N = 98) were randomly assigned to the experimental condition (i.e., presenting dynamic norms that increasingly favor sportspersonship, learning, and fun) vs. control condition (i.e., presenting neutral information). Parents’ motivations for encouraging their child to learn and to have fun in hockey were then assessed. Score sheets for the games that followed the study provided access to their children’s on-ice behaviors (i.e., penalties), as indicators of sportspersonship. Parents in the experimental condition reported higher self-determination for encouraging their child to learn and have fun in hockey compared to parents in the control condition. Furthermore, children of parents in the experimental condition had more assists. A mediation model revealed that the dynamic norms manipulation increased parents’ self-determined motivation for encouraging their child to learn and to have fun in hockey, which in turn, predicted higher psychological well-being (i.e., lower anxiety, more vitality). Together, these results provide support for the contention that highlighting increasingly popular social norms that promote sportspersonship, learning, and fun in sports, represents a promising strategy for creating positive social change in this life context.

The effect of descriptive norms and social identification on performance and exertion during a physical fitness task.

Research suggests that people's perceptions of the typical physical activity behaviors of others-descriptive norms-shape their own physical activity. However, prior work has primarily used cross-sectional designs, focused on people's physical activity intentions or self-reported overall physical activity, and failed to attend to how the normative referent affects the norm-behavior relationship. In a pre-registered experiment, we manipulated the descriptive norm to explore its effect on perceived exertion during, and objectively assessed performance on, an exercise (running) task. We also measured the strength of participants' social identification as a member of the norm reference group as a potential moderator. Following a baseline trial, participants (N=78) were either told that their baseline score on the running task was below average (high norm condition) or above average (low norm condition) compared to members of the reference group. Participants in both conditions tended to perform better in Trial 2 than Trial 1. However, participants in the high norm condition improved their performance significantly (2.5 times) more than participants in the low norm condition. Social identification moderated the effect of the norm manipulation on perceived exertion. High identifiers tended to exert themselves less than low identifiers during Trial 2 if they were told they were above average, whereas if told they were below average, high identifiers exerted themselves slightly more than low identifiers. Results provide evidence that descriptive norm messages can improve people's performance on physically demanding tasks, and indicate that descriptive physical activity norms may be more influential when the norm reference group is subjectively meaningful. Opportunities to fruitfully deploy norm messages in applied contexts are discussed.

“Nudging” intergroup contact: Normative social influences on intergroup contact engagement

Much research has shown that intergroup contact is associated with a reduction in prejudice. Far less attention has been paid to the conditions that promote intergroup contact. This research explored the role of normative social influence in predicting contact engagement (total N = 1,538). Cross-sectional Study 1 found that individuals’ perception of descriptive levels of intergroup contact amongst the ingroup predicted their own contact engagement whilst controlling for outgroup attitudes. Study 2 and Study 3 demonstrated that an experimental manipulation of descriptive norms promoted outgroup approach intentions, and actual approach behaviour. Participants were more open to future intergroup contact when they learnt of the high prevalence of this behaviour amongst the ingroup. Study 4 then considered how normative techniques could be used when intergroup contact is not commonplace. Together, the findings provide a new understanding of the antecedents of intergroup contact and new techniques for encouraging greater inclusion and integration.

Norm manipulation as a condition of friendship

ABSTRACT Cathy Mason (2020) argues – against my position in Phelan (2019) – that significant norm-manipulation is unnecessary for friendship. Instead, she holds that norm manipulation is a, perhaps omnipresent, causal result of the very feature I deny as necessary to friendship: mutual caring or love. Mason’s counter-examples allow for further explication of the norm-manipulation view of friendship. However, they do not constitute a compelling challenge to that view, because they do not seem to involve collaborative norm manipulation at all. Instead, they are better described as cases in which people come to be subject to established cultural norms they were not previously subject to, because they voluntarily come to fall under a distinctive relationship relative to one another.

Perceived social norms and acceptance of transgender students in gendered restrooms

Transgender college students report higher rates of discrimination in gendered restrooms than do their cisgender peers. It is critical to understand factors that promote greater acceptance of transgender students using restrooms that align with their gender identity. The current experiment examined the impact of perceived social norms on both acceptance of transgender individuals using various locations and transphobia. Participants were 133 cisgender college students recruited on a college campus that had recently added all-gender restrooms to all campus buildings. Participants completed a prescreening measure of transphobia. During the experimental session, participants read results from a fictional study in which the social norm of their college campus was described as either in favor of (supportive norm) or against (unsupportive norm) the installation of all-gender restrooms on campus. Then participants completed measures of acceptance of transgender individuals in various spaces and transphobia. Supporting the primary hypothesis, relative to those in the unsupportive norm condition, participants in the supportive social norm condition were more accepting of transgender individuals using restrooms that aligned with their gender identity. However, the norm manipulation did not impact personal levels of transphobia between prescreen and post experimental manipulation. Implications and future directions will be discussed.

Moving Least Squares Method and its Improvement: A Concise Review

The concise review systematically summarises the state-of-the-art variants of Moving Least Squares (MLS) method. MLS method is a mathematical tool which could render cogent support in data interpolation, shape construction and formulation of meshfree schemes, particularly due to its flexibility to form complex arithmetic equation. However, the conventional MLS method is suffering to deal with discontinuity of field variables. Varied strategies of overcoming such shortfall are discussed in current work. Although numerous MLS variants were proposed since the introduction of MLS method in numerical/statistical analysis, there is no technical review made on how the methods evolve. The current review is structured according to major strategies on how to improvise MLS method: the modification of weight function, the manipulation of discrete norms, the inclusion of iterative feature for residuals minimising and integration of these strategies for more robust computation. A wide range of advanced MLS variants have been compiled, summarised, and reappraised according to its underlying principle of improvement. In addition, inherent limitation of MLS method and its possible strategy of improvement is discussed too in this article. The current work could render valuable reference to implement and develop advanced MLS schemes, whenever complexity of the specific scientific problems arose.

Experimental priming of peer injunctive norms and peer descriptive norms on personal alcohol attitudes, behaviors, and motivations

Purpose: Several theoretical frameworks postulate that perceptions about social normative information could modify personal attitudes and behavior. The current experiment applied priming methodology to activate the mental representations of peer injunctive norms (perceptions about the attitudinal approval of friends) and peer descriptive norms (perceptions about the behaviors of friends) for alcohol on personal alcohol attitudes, behaviors, and motivations. Materials and methods: Participants (N = 470) enrolled at a university in the United States were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: peer injunctive norms prime (n = 159), peer descriptive norms prime (n = 153), or control group (n = 158). Participants in the two priming conditions were exposed to a series of item stimuli designed to activate mental concepts about normative alcohol attitudes (peer injunctive norms) or normative alcohol behaviors (peer descriptive norms). The dependent variables were personal drinking attitudes, behaviors, conformity motives, social motives, coping motives, and enhancement motives. Results: Results indicated that participants primed with the peer injunctive norms or peer descriptive norms manipulations subsequently endorsed statistically higher mean scores on personal alcohol attitudes than the control group. The descriptive norms manipulation resulted in statistically higher endorsement of personal alcohol behaviors and conformity motives than the control group. Conclusions: These findings suggest that simple and subtle thought accessibility reminders about other people’s alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors might compel social normative effects. The research offers implications about the mechanism of operation for social normative peer pressure on drinking attitudes and behaviors in adolescents and young adults.

What shapes public support for climate change mitigation policies? The role of descriptive social norms and elite cues

AbstractWhat are the roles of bottom-up and top-down signals in the formation of climate change policy preferences? Using a large sample of American residents (n = 1520) and combining an experimental manipulation of descriptive social norms with two choice experiments, we investigate the effects of descriptive norms and policy endorsements by key political actors on climate policy support. We study these questions in two areas considered to be central in a number of decarbonization pathways: the phase-out of fossil fuel-powered cars and the deployment of carbon capture and storage. Our study provides two important results. First, social norm interventions may be no silver bullet for increasing citizens’ support for ambitious climate policies. In fact, we not only find that climate policy support is unaffected by norm messages communicating an increased diffusion of pro-environmental behaviors, but also that norm messages communicating the prevalence of non-sustainable behaviors decrease policy support. Second, in the presence of policy endorsements by political parties, citizens’ trust in these parties influences their support for climate policies. This study contributes to research in behavioral climate policy by examining the impact of descriptive norms and elite cues on climate policy support.

Peer Ostracism as a Sanction Against Wrongdoers and Whistleblowers

Retaliation against whistleblowers is a well-recognized problem, yet there is little explanation for why uninvolved peers choose to retaliate through ostracism. We conduct two experiments in which participants take the role of a peer third-party observer of theft and subsequent whistleblowing. We manipulate injunctive norms (whether company policy is ambiguous or unambiguous regarding the action) and descriptive norms (whether others behave similarly). Both experiments (1) support the core of our theoretical model, based on social intuitionist theory (Haidt in Psychol Rev 108:814–834, 2001), such that moral judgments of the acts of wrongdoing and whistleblowing influence the perceived likeability of each actor and ultimately influence intention to ostracize each actor and (2) indicate more willingness to ostracize the whistleblower than the wrongdoer. When we vary norms for the wrongdoing in Experiment 1, we find that descriptive and injunctive norms indirectly influence intentions to ostracize both the wrongdoer and whistleblower. These relationships are serially mediated by the observers’ moral judgments of the act (wrongdoing or whistleblowing) and likeability of the actor (wrongdoer or whistleblower). When we vary norms for whistleblowing in Experiment 2, the injunctive norm manipulation affected moral judgment of the action of whistleblowing, and we do not observe any other significant effects of the norm manipulations on moral judgments of the actions of wrongdoing or whistleblowing.

Does perceived normativity of intergenerational contact enhance the effects of imagined intergenerational contact?

Two experiments investigated effects of imagined intergroup contact (IIC) on young adults’ stereotypical perceptions of and intention to communicate with older adults. Both studies tested a third-person variant of IIC (extended IIC). Also, Study 1 explicitly manipulated the perceived normativity of intergenerational contact by providing relevant information, and Study 2 implicitly manipulated perceived normativity via task repetition. In Study 1, IIC (including extended IIC) had few effects. However, the explicit norms manipulation changed perceptions of norms, which improved perceptions of older adults and increased desire for future intergenerational communication. In Study 2, some forms of IIC reduced intergenerational anxiety, which translated into more positive intergenerational perceptions. Moreover, repeated IIC had positive effects on intergenerational perceptions that were mediated by perceptions of norms and that persisted for a week. We advocate more attention to the effect of IIC on norms, and to the conditions under which IIC works (and does not).

The power of aroma: gender, biopolitics and melodramatic imagination in the Legend of Zhen Huan

ABSTRACT This article combines ethnography and textual analysis to consider the reasons for the immense popularity of the 2012 Chinese television series “The Legend of Zhen Huan” (LZH). I argue that LZH, a historical melodrama, stages key phenomena—especially in the depiction of feminine wielding of aroma—that audiences recognize as parallel to contemporary gender norms and governance in China. In LZH, aroma is treated as a diagnostic, infiltrating, and affective force that makes the female body permeable and affective, extending feminine power. Women use aroma to channel and transform male power. For audiences, who watched the series by the millions and continue to repeat its catchphrases, the depiction of aroma in LZH highlights the forms of biopower they are subject to, as well as imagined possibilities for political and personal resistance. Such resistance involves strategic manipulation of gender norms that have been pressed in the government’s recent exertion of biopower.