Normative Behavior Research Articles

Witchcraft, Envy, and Norm Enforcement in Mauritius.

Recent research has shown that an array of religious beliefs can be used to enforce socially normative behaviour, but the application of these theories to other supernatural beliefs, including witchcraft, is still nascent. Across two pre-registered studies in Mauritius, we examine how witchcraft is believed to be caused by envy and how this belief can create and enforce social norms around notcausing envy. Data was collected in-person in Mauritius. In study 1 (N = 445), we found that both practicing witchcraft and being motivated by envy or self-interest increase perceptions of harm. These motivations also increase the rate with which people suggest a person was doing witchcraft, with envy having the stronger effect. Belief that someone was doing witchcraft increases the negativity with which one views that person and damages their reputation. In study 2 (N = 292), we found that when a person breaks a norm around causing envy, participants believe that a subsequent misfortune is cause by witchcraft, but not by God. When someone acts selfishly towards others a subsequent misfortune is believed to be caused by God but not witchcraft. This suggests that witchcraft beliefs, but not religious ones, are enforcing norms around preventing envy. Together, these studies suggest that witchcraft beliefs can support locally specific social norms, and that these norms might be different than those supported by religion.

Delirium prevention in hospices: Opportunities and limitations - A focused ethnography.

Delirium is common and distressing for hospice in-patients. Hospital-based research shows delirium may be prevented by targeting its risk factors. Many preventative strategies address patients' fundamental care needs. However, there is little research regarding how interventions need to be tailored to the in-patient hospice setting. To explore the behaviours of hospice in-patient staff in relation to delirium prevention, and the influences that shape these behaviours. Focused ethnography supported by behaviour change theory. Observation, semi-structured interviews and document review were conducted. A total of 89 participants (multidisciplinary staff, volunteers, patients and relatives) at two UK in-patient hospice units. Hospice clinicians engaged in many behaviours associated with prevention of delirium as part of person-centred fundamental care, without delirium prevention as an explicit aim. Carrying out essential care tasks was highly valued and supported by adequate staffing levels, multidisciplinary team engagement and role clarity. Patients' reduced physical capability limited some delirium prevention behaviours, as did clinicians' behavioural norms related to prioritising patient comfort. Delirium prevention was not embedded into routine assessment and care decision-making, despite its potential to reduce patient distress. The value placed on fundamental care in hospices supports delirium prevention behaviours but these require adaptation as patients become closer to death. There is a need to increase clinicians' understanding of the potential for delirium prevention to reduce patient distress during illness progression; to support inclusion of delirium prevention in making decisions about care; and to embed routine review of delirium risk factors in practice.

Transformation of the Celebrations and Entertainment Culture of Russians under the Influence of the Orthodox Clergy (Second Half of 19th — early 20th Century)

Both global social, economic and political factors on the one hand and personal ones on the other determine the ways in which the folk celebrations and entertainment culture transform over time. The article, based on archival, published and the author’s field materials, presents the results of a study of how parish clergy affected the folk celebrations and entertainment culture, playing style and repertoire in accordance with church regulations. The activities of the priests, representing a set of individual practices, were focused on achieving a common goal — the assimilation of Christian doctrine by the peasantry and the introduction of norms of behavior corresponding to Christian ethics into everyday life, including in the celebrations sphere. The study showed that thanks to continuous efforts to introduce Christian tenets into the collective consciousness of the peasants, the priests were able to gradually transform the basic understanding of a holiday, making it more canonical, which certainly influenced the forms of folk fun. As a result, a system of temporal, locative, age-related, and action-based prohibitions emerged that define the acceptable framework of the Celebrations. They were effective regulators of behavior, performing an educational and training function. The results of the transformation of the celebrations and entertainment culture are mainly presented in two variants: 1) adaptation of Christian institutions resulting in a syncretic form, including both pre-Christian and Christian elements; 2) complete displacement of unwanted entertainment from everyday life. In general, the transformation of the celebrations and entertainment culture was a complex and multidirectional process. On the one hand, it was in line with Christian institutions, on the other, a return to «pagan» forms was often observed. Abstract concepts about the sinfulness of profane entertainment, which were transmitted by the priests, could not displace the archaic attitude towards the festive and playful sphere of life and devalue the ritual, magical and socio-cultural functions that fun and play performed in peasant society.

Social Responsibility Appeal and Cross-Lagged Effects of Perceived Norms on Mask-Wearing Behavior During the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT This study extends the Theory of Normative Social Behavior by examining the cross-lagged effects of perceived norms on mask-wearing intention and behavior during an evolving COVID-19 pandemic. We also investigate the normative mechanisms of how social responsibility appeals improve compliance with mask-wearing behavior. A two-wave panel survey (N = 767) was conducted in Singapore in March and April 2020. Findings show that injunctive norms increase subsequent intention, whereas descriptive norms reduce subsequent behavior. Individuals may find it unnecessary to wear masks when they perceive many others are engaging in the action. Our result shows that this counterproductive effect could be mitigated by a greater sense of social pressure to comply, which can be reinforced by using social responsibility appeals. Our findings offer insights for theory extension and norms-based intervention strategies in pandemic contexts.

Perspective on the role of norms for institutional behavior and policy design in European cross-border regions.

The article analyses how a norm scientific perspective can advance our understanding of cross-border regions and guide future directions of research. Cross-border regions are territorial spaces comprising territory from two or more national states, located directly at the borders of those spaces. Since the 1950s it has become increasingly common that cross-border organizations, constituted by local municipalities and regional authorities and sometimes private entities, are established to coordinate governance processes around shared policy problems. These organizations fit into a Type II model of European multi-level governance as complex, fluid, and carried out in overlapping jurisdictions. A norm scientific perspective focuses on joint expectations as a primary predictor of behavior and thereby on social structures as well as social transformations. In accordance with institutional theory, norms are understood as intersubjective, widely shared, but often implicit, expectations and rules that guide human behavior. The article makes two arguments. First, it argues that a norm-scientific perspective has the potential to significantly advance the scientific community's understanding of various aspects related to how cross-border cooperation emergence and functioning. Second, it argues that cross-border regions constitute a promising venue to advance the knowledge of how norms can be studied and understood.

Destigmatizing Cannabis: A Theoretical Exploration of Shifting Consumption Norms in the U.S. Legal Market

This study explores the destigmatization of stigmatized consumption, focusing on the evolving landscape of legal cannabis in the United States. With global adult-use cannabis sales projected to surpass 33 billion U.S. dollars by 2025, the market's growth is undeniable. Despite its expansion, the legal cannabis market remains intricate and controversial. There has been a steep increase in support for cannabis legalization over the last two decades in the U.S. and around the world. This study combines the “stigma turbine” theoretical framework with normative social behavior and market co-optation theories, proposing a categorization of consumption practices from stigmatized to destigmatized to normalized to normatized. By examining the destigmatization process, this framework offers insights applicable beyond cannabis, aiding scholars in understanding the dynamics of stigmatized behaviors and guiding policymakers and brand managers in navigating evolving perceptions and responses. We offer a few public policy implications that advocate for more research in the cannabis field that would educate consumers and increase awareness.

Psychological Ownership in Teleinstructive Augmented Reality Workspaces

Psychological ownership over virtual and physical spaces in augmented reality can lead to tensions between collaborators, yet, there is still a significant challenge in understanding how psychological ownership manifests in shared AR and what that might mean for the inclusion of collaborative interaction mechanisms. Through an experimental instruction task with a teleAR system, we interviewed 16 participant pairs on their perceptions of ownership of virtual and physical spaces and how they thought their perceptions impacted their interaction within those spaces. Our findings indicate (1) how AR introduces new ideas around behavioral norms in spaces that are layered and (2) that the nature of the task itself, in this case one of instruction where collaborators have different levels of knowledge and the local worker is reliant on the remote expert, significantly affects the perceptions of ownership and therefore behavior norms.

LINGUOCULTURAL AND ETHNOLINGUISTIC ASPECT OF ADJECTIVES DENOTING HUMAN CHARACTER TRAITS

In general, the psycho-cultural features of a personality, expressing the principles of its existence (clothing, behaviour, culture of speech and other values), reflect the essence of a nation. In particular, the norms of behaviour, considered today as an object of study of psychological science, are also considered a special category from the point of view of linguocultural and ethno-cultural aspects. After all, from the communicative, pragmatic, discursive side, human behaviour reflects the culture not only of different social groups and organisations, but also of one nation or country. Therefore, the study of the concept of behaviour as an ethnolinguistic, linguocultural phenomenon is of great scientific importance. Accordingly, the article considers the ethnocultural sphere of ethnolinguistic adjectives and stable expressions characterising human behaviour. The lexical-semantic groups of adjectives expressing behavioural peculiarities are singled out, the common features of the mentioned lexical units for several cultures are differentiated. The synonymic-antonymic series of adjectives expressing human behaviour with positive and negative semantics was compared with other languages belonging to the Altaic language group and attention was paid to their etymology. The authors, relying on the works of Russian and foreign linguistic scientists, dwelled in detail on the ethnolinguistic meaning of those word units that are not often used in the modern linguistic fund. And also the analysis of the basics of linguoculturology, slangs and invective expressions characterising some negative features of human behaviour was carried out, comparing them with metaphorical comparisons in the Kazakh, Russian, Altai languages. Ethnolinguistics and ethnoculturology view adjectives as a multifaceted phenomenon reflecting the worldview and cultural values of a people. This study integrates these two disciplines to comprehensively analyze the linguistic and cultural heritage of the Kazakh people.

The Real and the Speculative: Gentrification and Literary Form in Tom Mccarthy’s Remainder

ABSTRACT This article investigates the city novel's relationship to the idea of everyday life through an analysis of Tom McCarthy's Remainder (2005). Remainder is emblematic of a broader shift from realism's preoccupation with the “real”, to the “speculative”- models of prediction and anticipation that attempt to incorporate the flux of everyday life into new forms of social control. McCarthy's novel self-consciously explores how twentieth century attempts to celebrate the contingency of everyday life in the metropolis in fact anticipate forms of metropolitan control based not on the imposition of models of normative behaviour, but on the capacity to respond in real time to the discrete permutations of everyday urban life. Ultimately, McCarthy's novel is sensitive to the inherent violence of the speculative, revealing how ideals of spontaneity and contingency are no longer exclusive to the privileged domain of the quotidian, but are the very foundations of financialised and gentrified urbanization.

Qualitative Elicitation of Physical Activity Salient Beliefs Among Turkish Adolescent Girls.

This study aims to investigate salient beliefs toward physical activity by gathering qualitative data through open-ended questions among high school-aged female adolescents in Turkey. A sample of 259 Turkish high school students, aged between 14 and 17, were randomly selected to participate in this study. Open-ended questions address 3 main components of the Theory of Planned Behavior, attitudes, perceived control, and social norms. Content analysis is employed to categorize the data according to themes, during the elicitation process. The results were categorized as variables of the Theory of Planned Behavior. Positive attitude contributors included health expectations, emotions, fitness expectations, learning, and socialization, while negative attitude contributors encompassed adverse health outcomes and emotions. Second, perceived competence and efficacy emerged as positive contributors to perceived behavior control, whereas factors, such as time constraints, health-related barriers, fitness barriers, environmental and economic barriers, and perceived negative competence and efficacy were identified as negative influencers of perceived behavior control. Last, it was found that families, friends, and teachers played significant roles in shaping social norms. Offering attractive choices for physical activities while explaining the positive impact on both physical, and mental health, as well as physical fitness is important for positive attitudes. Providing positive experiences and emphasizing the aspects of physical activity that support academic productivity are important factors in supporting perceived behavioral control. Finally, advocating for environments that promote physical activity behaviors among peers and ensure comprehensive support from families and educators is valuable in terms of subjective norms to increase physical activity intentions.

Exploring the association between communicating about NMR spectra and acute awareness of stigma attached to one’s gender among women in postsecondary organic chemistry courses

Women report that they must conform to masculine behavioral norms to progress in chemistry, with the necessity of adopting such norms pushing them from the field. Advancing gender-based equity within...

How Do Kazakhstani Tajik Women Form and Reproduce Ethnic Identity When Raising Children?

Comprehension of the role of women of ethnic communities in shaping the life orientation, identity and everyday life of the younger generation is of great practical importance for the socio-cultural development of Kazakhstan. Women of ethnic groups play an important role in preserving the cultural heritage and identity of their people. The purpose of this article is to analyze the research of the question “How Do Kazakh Tajik Women Form And Reproduce Ethnic Identity When Raising Children?” The author considers the processes of formation and reproduction of ethnic identity as a directed process in the daily life of Tajik women in the upbringing of children. Tajik women play a key role in passing on the traditions, language, and culture of their people to their children. They are the first teachers of children and form their ideas about the world, values and norms of behavior. The article presents the results of a field study of two qualitative methods: narrative in-depth interview and observation. The object of the study were women of the Tajik community of the Turkestan region and the city of Shymkent, who have experience raising children over the age of 18.

Cognitive onomastics. Translation of precedent onyms

In the article precedent onyms (POs) in the onomastic space of Zhansugurov’s poem Kulager from the perspective of cognitive onomastics were considered and features of their transferring in translation by Belinda Cooke were identified. The study of POs is currently of great interest. POs are capable of encoding, storing, and updating cultural information, as well as expressing subjective values, conveying emotional states, and confirming ethical or other behavioral norms. Kulager is based on precedent situations, precedent text, and precedent names. The article analyzes characteristic features of translation strategies towards POs — adaptation, modulation and compensation that are used by the translator to remove extra or transfer important background information. The research justifies the need to analyze denotative and connotative meanings, as changes in the connotation of some POs are revealed in translation. Authors show POs represent a unique precedent phenomenon, determined by precedent text, precedent situation, and precedent phenomenon belongs to the cognitive base of personality.

You Are Not Alone. Social Gatherings for Children/Adolescents with ADHD to Promote Self-Efficacy and Social Skills

This article addresses the contribution of group social meetings for children with ADHD in promoting self-efficacy and improving social skills. This article is part of my doctoral research and is based on a review of current literature. ADHD is considered one of the most common disorders among students of various ages. Attention has physiological, psychological, and behavioral aspects, significantly impacting overall functioning, particularly in school. Children with ADHD face difficulties in academic performance and social domains, including challenges in social adaptation and forming social connections. Previous studies have indicated that many children diagnosed or characterized as having ADHD struggle significantly in both academic and social areas. We ask them to learn in a way that is unnatural for them, requiring great effort. We value and prioritize behaviors and abilities that do not align with their strengths. One proposed treatment option for children with ADHD is group intervention. group provides a sense of belonging, support, and acceptance, as opportunities to learn diverse behaviors, reflections, and modeling normative behavior. The article reviews previous studies on the impact of therapeutic groups and social meetings on children with ADHD - how these meetings help children improve their social skills and increase their sense of self-efficacy. In conclusion, if we can better understand how these children feel and act, we can create tailored learning environments and positive, adapted educational and social interactions, thereby aiding their personal development.

Being Moral When It Is Counternormative: The Relationship Between the Creative Identity and Moral Objection

Relying on the work on creative prototype and role theory, we demonstrate that having a creative identity can lead to moral objection depending on the implication of the act for one’s identity as a creative individual. In a pilot study using a survey of working adults, we find that employees’ creative identities and their intention to object in moral situations are positively and significantly correlated. Utilizing measurement-of-mediation (Study 1) and experimental mediation (Studies 2–4) approaches, we test and find support for the mediating role of norm-breaking motives predicting moral objection. In Studies 2–4, we find that creative identities lead to moral objection when moral objection is counter-normative and not when it is an expected, normative behavior. Across five studies ( N = 1,327), utilizing both experimental and correlational methods, this paper shows that creative identities can prompt moral objection when such objection is counter-normative, aligning with the creative prototype and reinforcing a creative identity through norm-breaking motives. We extend prior theories on the consequences of creativity, the creative prototype, creative identities, and their link with moral acts.

Оценочные приоритеты в языковом сознании современных российских студентов

The article deals with the value preferences of modern Russian students on the material of surveys in several Russian universities. 250 people were interviewed. The informants were asked the following questions: Which behavioral flaw do your friends consider to be the most forgivable and the most unforgivable? What do they see as the main virtue in behavior of their peers? What in the behavior of the older generation in your friends’ view seems strange and unpleasant? It is found that students' evaluative priorities generally correspond to the communicative values of Russian linguoculture (openness, sincerity, benevolence) and the priorities of youth worldview (emotionality, spontaneity, independence). At the same time, we can see the peculiarities of modern attitudes to communication in the respondents' answers: acute rejection of communicative pressure and orientation to the expressed approval of one's attitude to the world by other people. To a certain extent, these features are conditioned by the norms and usus of network communication, which is the leading type of personal interactions of modern youth and in which the expression of mutual sympathy in the form of signs of approval dominates. The value picture of the world promoted by network discourse is a reduced worldview of people living in a constructed comfortable reality. Regrettably, many informants regard the usage of obscene words in friendly talk as acceptable mode of communication. The emphasis on tactfulness in communication as a necessary condition of communication can be explained by the norms of behavior in higher education, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, by the gender specificity of informants (girls are known to predominate among the surveyed students of philology).

Being Popular and Being Liked: Goals, Behaviors, and Norm Salience.

Youth's social status (popularity and likability) relates with social status goals as well as bullying and prosocial behaviors within the context of classroom norms for bullying and prosocial behaviors, but less clear is how each of these factors interrelates with each other. The current study empirically analyses the concurrent relationships among social status goals, bullying and prosocial behaviors, and classroom norms with social status. Participants were a nationally representative sample of 6,421 Slovenian early adolescents (50% females; Mage = 13 years; SD = 6 months). Findings indicated that popularity goals were related to bullying behaviors and bullying behaviors were related to popularity. In contrast, likability goals are related to prosocial behaviors, and prosocial behaviors are related to popularity and likability. The role of classroom norm salience was complex as bullying increased popularity in low-bullying environments, whereas prosocial behaviors enhanced likability in high prosocial classroom contexts. Students high on both bullying and prosocial behaviors (bistrategic controllers) demonstrated higher popularity and likability compared to their peers., but had similar relationships among their social status goals, bullying, prosocial behaviors, and social status as all other peers. The findings demonstrate a clear relationship among social status goals, bullying and prosocial behaviors, and social status (popularity and likability), while suggesting that classroom norms may differentiate how bullying/prosocial behaviors might align with social status.

The winter path and the winter dream by Pushkin and Leo Tolstoy

In his story “The Blizzard” (1856) and the novel “Anna Karenina” (1873), Leo Tolstoy consistently reinterprets the motifs of Petr Grinev’s dream in Pushkin’s novel “The Captain’s Daughter” (1836) and through its prism – the key motif of the novel: the winter path as a metaphor for a life path. Grinev’s path is his service with the aim to fulfil the principle of noble honor, included in the epigraph of the story. The educational content of this path is his choice between “duty” and “will”. Grinev subordinates the “will” of his desires to “duty”, but follows his “will”, protecting the life and honor of his betrothed. Pugachev, embodying the elemental principle of nature as the source of human “will”, acts as a paradoxical assistant to the hero in affirming his “will” as the highest level of the “norm”. By reproducing the image of Pugachev as the robber from Grinev’s dream in the protagonist’s second dream of “The Blizzard”, Tolstoy presents him as the embodiment of the folk-nature existence, only intuitively indicated in the blizzard movement without a path. The further reinterpretation of this image in the dreams of Anna Karenina and Vronsky was determined by the fact that the cultural and behavioral norm of nobility, stated in “The Captain’s Daughter”, became a historical past for Tolstoy in the 1870s. In particular, it was the motif of “heroic hedonism”, varied by Pushkin in his late works, which allowed taking a wife away from her unloved husband and a bride from her unwanted groom. For a nobleman, the “family thought” in “Anna Karenina” made the only possible way back. The “man with a black beard”, referring us to Pugachev, appeares in the winter dreams of Anna and Vronsky, who betrayed the “family thought”, and symbolizes their boundless and fatal “self-will”.

Why Be Funny: The Influence of Social Norms on the Communicative Functions of Humor.

Humor is a valued social activity and, as such, should be influenced by social norms. This investigation examined the relationships between the functions of humor and the theory of normative social behavior. Descriptive norms are the foundation of TNSB. However, the theory argues that those norms are influenced by a set of moderators that can strengthen or attenuate proposed relationships. One hundred and sixty-three college students completed measures of TNSB variables (descriptive norms, injunctive norms, outcome expectation, group identification, and reward) as well as Ramsey and Meyer's functions of humor scale (identification, clarification, enforcement, and differentiation). Though descriptive norms significantly correlated with all four humor functions, in regression analyses, no significant associations emerged. On the other hand, injunctive norms consistently predicted humor functions. In moderation analyses, the interaction between descriptive norms and reward was significant for all four functions of humor. The discussion highlights the role that normative mechanisms play in shaping the ways people use humor in their everyday lives.

INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS OF IMPLEMENTATION INNOVATIVE REPRODUCTION IN THE NATIONAL ECONOMY

The institutional determinants of ensuring the expanded reproduction of the national economy on an innovative basis are substantiated. It is established that innovative reproduction is determined by the modern model and ontological principles of formation of the innovation process, which acts as an organizational basis for promoting a scientific product to a commodity producer and is focused on meeting the needs of consumers of innovations, as well as on developing own innovations that allow obtaining a long-term economic effect and are focused on the long-term nature of innovative development. It is stated that in order to modernize the innovation process at all stages of its organization, it is necessary to introduce elements of institutional design to form transitional forms of process implementation and transform them into more modern forms. It is proved that the organization of the production process based on the development of own innovations provides a spiral dynamics of reproduction, which allows obtaining in a new production cycle modernized or fundamentally new innovations that improve production, contribute to an increase in the output of innovative goods and obtaining a commercial effect in the form of additional monetary income. It is determined that the innovative type of reproduction is based on a system of regulated formal norms that direct economic entities to participate in the process of production, distribution and consumption of an innovative product. The innovative dynamics is realized through the institutions formed at each level of the hierarchy with the appropriate direction and coordination of the norms of innovative behavior of economic entities. It is argued that the dynamics of innovative transformations, the formation of an organizational model of the innovation process and the nature of extended reproduction are influenced by exogenous and endogenous factors. The endogenous factors of influence of innovative reproduction (personnel, financial, information support, equipment and technologies, organization of production) are systematized. It is substantiated that exogenous influence on innovative reproduction is exerted by factors formed by basic economic institutions, formal norms and infrastructure provision.