Salience Of Norms Research Articles

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.

Interactions among gender norms: Evidence from US couples

AbstractA considerable body of work has shown that motherhood is accompanied by a reduction in labor market participation and hours of market work, while more recent findings indicate that women who earn more than their husbands tend to subsequently take actions that reduce their market income. Both patterns of behavior have been interpreted as women trying to conform to child‐rearing norms and to the prescription that the husband should be the main breadwinner. In this paper, we use panel data for US couples to re‐examine women's behavior when they become mothers and when they are the main breadwinner. We start by asking whether the arrival of a child affects women who are the main breadwinner and those who are not in the same way, and then turn to how mothers and childless women react when they are the main breadwinner. Our results are consistent with the breadwinner norm only affecting mothers, suggesting that the salience of gender norms may depend on the household's context, notably on whether or not children are present. Concerning the arrival of a child, we find that although the labor supply of women who earn more than their husbands initially responds to motherhood less than that of secondary earners, the two groups converge after 10 years. Moreover, women in the former category exhibit a disproportionately large increase in the share of housework they perform after becoming mothers. The latter results suggest that the presence of children pushes women to seek to compensate breaking a norm by adhering to another one.

Context matters: Norm salience toward aggression moderates the association between parental education and childhood aggressive behavior development

This longitudinal study investigated whether classroom norm salience toward aggression moderated the association between parental education and children’s overt aggressive behavior development from third to sixth grade of elementary school. Children ( N = 1,205, 51% girls) from 46 Dutch elementary schools were annually followed from third to sixth grade. Norm salience was operationalized by within-classroom correlations between individual children’s peer-nominated social preference and aggression scores. Results from multilevel latent growth models showed that norm salience development from third to sixth grade, but not norm salience in third grade, was a significant moderator. That is, results suggested that in third grade, children of lower-educated parents showed higher levels of overt aggressive behavior than children of higher-educated parents, irrespective of the norm. However, in classrooms where norm salience became more favorable toward aggression over time, children of lower-educated parents showed a slower growth rate of overt aggressive behavior than children of higher-educated parents from third to sixth grade. In classrooms where norm salience became less favorable toward aggression over time, the development of overt aggressive behavior was similar for all children. Findings suggest that classroom norm salience may become more important in the later elementary school years and that children of higher-educated parents may be more able to adapt their behavior toward the classroom norm.

Target pressure and corporate scandals: a natural language processing investigation of how organizational culture underlies institutional failures

ABSTRACT An organizational culture of pressurizing employees to achieve unrealistic goals (“target pressure”) is often suggested to foster the misconduct and risk-taking that causes institutional failures (corporate scandals, accidents). To conceptualize and investigate this, we gathered anonymous employee online reviews about working in 218 companies (71,830 reviews, containing 4,356,105 words) and developed a natural language processing algorithm to measure the salience of norms for target pressure within the employee reviews. Using this measure, we surfaced and qualitatively analysed sentences in which employees discussed target pressure, and quantitatively tested whether companies with a high target pressure culture (in which target pressure was especially salient in collective thinking) were at greater risk of experiencing a corporate scandal. Our hypothesis was supported. Qualitative analysis found that high target pressure cultures are characterized by norms for three inter-linking elements: overly ambitious targets that are beyond the capability and control of employees, highly consequential targets that generate strain, and expediency in achieving targets, which encourages an “ends justify the means” mentality. Combined, these elements may increase the likelihood of institutional failures by promoting, incentivizing, and normalizing deviant or risky behaviour (i.e. to achieve targets), and implicitly de-prioritizing the importance of safe and ethical conduct.

Referral Contagion: Downstream Benefits of Customer Referrals

Companies often invest in referral reward programs to incentivize their current customers to spread word of mouth. Previous work has documented that referred customers tend to be more valuable than nonreferred customers through their purchases or engagement with the company. The authors propose a previously overlooked benefit of encouraging referrals: Referred customers are also more valuable because they make more referrals. Using a large-scale field dataset, the authors show that referred customers make 31%–57% more referrals than nonreferred customers conditional on purchase activities. Using preregistered lab experiments, they replicate the main effect and propose one underlying mechanism: Referred customers perceive referring to be more socially appropriate than nonreferred customers do. In a field experiment, the authors build on previous work on norm salience and show that reminding referred customers that they joined through a referral further boosts their referral likelihood by 21%. These results advance the understanding of the social motives that contribute to referral decisions and illustrate that promoting referrals is substantially more valuable than previously estimated.

Norm Augmented Reinforcement Learning Agents With Synthesized Normative Rules

The dynamic deontic (DD) is a norm synthesis framework that extracts normative rules from reinforcement learning (RL), however it was not designed to be applied in agent coordination. This study proposes a norm augmented reinforcement learning framework (NARLF) that extends said model to include a norm deliberation mechanism for learned norms re-imputation for norm biased decision-making RL agents. This study aims to test the effects of synthesized norms applied on-line and off-line on agent learning performance. The framework consists of the DD framework extended with a pre-processing and deliberation component to allow re-imputation of normative rules. A deliberation model, the Norm Augmented Q-Table (NAugQT), is proposed to map normative rules into RL agents via q-values weight updates. Results show that the framework is able to map and improve RL agent's performance but only when synthesized off-line edited absolute norm salience value norms are used. This shows limitations when unstable salience norms are applied. Improvement in norm extraction and pre-processing are required.

Insiders and Outsiders: Feminists in the Academy Influencing Gender‐Sensitive Parliamentary Change

While the idea of a gender-sensitive parliament is over 20 years old (Childs & Palmieri, 2023), institutional reforms in the name of gender equality have been slow to materialise around the world. Where change has occurred, it appears to have been catalysed by a limited range of—sometimes confluent—factors including the public airing of allegations of sexual misconduct in the #MeToo era, the increasing salience of gender-sensitive parliament international norms, and the role of feminists in the academy. Celis and Childs (2020) identify feminist academic critical actors as those who rather than simply researching parliamentary change, explicitly undertake institutional (re)design and (re)building work (see also Childs, 2024). In this article, we uncover the work undertaken by feminists in an Australian academic institution to support the 2021 independent inquiry of the Australian Human Rights Commission into Commonwealth parliamentary workplaces. This work—undertaken by the authors as both insiders and outsiders—informed the analysis and recommendations in the Australian Human Rights Commission’s report, and since its launch, has also kept pressure on the various bodies entrusted with implementing gender-sensitive changes. We argue that feminists in the academy are uniquely positioned to navigate insider and outsider roles in support of gender-sensitive parliamentary reform.

Preserving Law and Order: How Institutions Implementing International Norms on Refugee Protection Can Restrict Asylum Outcomes

Abstract The international frameworks on refugee protection, including the 1951 Convention and the 1967 Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, are among the strongest norms to govern international mobility. Despite the salience and universality of these international norms, however, asylum outcomes, as indicated by refugee recognition rates (RRRs), vary extensively across state parties. The variation in RRR signals a critical normative gap between the institutionalization and implementation of international norms on refugee protection. In this article, I offer an explanation for this gap by examining the role of domestic institutions responsible for implementing relevant international (and domestic) laws on the ground. Through in-depth interviews, participant observation, and analysis of government, media, and non-governmental organization materials, I investigate the case of South Korea, a wealthy liberal democracy known for its exceptionally low RRR. I argue that South Korea’s low RRR is a result of the preexisting and prevailing ethos of the institutions responsible for refugee status determination, which is deeply rooted in the preservation of law and order and therefore fundamentally conflicts with the human protection principles underlying the Convention.

Faroese self-government: development over time and effects of critical junctures

ABSTRACT The Faroe Islands is receiving increased international attention due to the political changes in the Arctic region. This is causing challenges for the Home Rule model and the Danish Realm. The Faroe Islands have previous experiences with critical junctures that have led to change in self-government settings. Based on historical institutionalism, this article conducts a comparative case study of two previous critical juncture events and time-periods for the Faroe Islands. The first is the Second World War followed by the implementation of the new Home Rule model in 1948, and the second is the severe economic crisis in the 1990s followed by path dependency institutional adaptations to the Home Rule model in 2005. The investigation resembles a different-outcomes comparison and focuses on identifying the contextual political factors of importance and how these factors varied for the two cases. The findings show shifts in the within-case political power balance in opposite directions, changes in the policy space, differences in the Danish state´s position and third-party actor roles as well as differences in terms of international salience of national self-determination norms.

Assessing Survey Items on Social Norms Relating to Dating and Relationship Violence and to Gender: Cognitive Interviews with Young People in England.

Widespread among adolescents in England, dating and relationship violence (DRV) is associated with subsequent injuries and serious mental health problems. While DRV prevention interventions often aim to shift harmful social norms, no established measures exist to assess relevant norms and their role in mediating DRV outcomes. We conducted cognitive interviews exploring the understandability and answerability of candidate measures of social norms relating to DRV and gender roles, informing measure refinement. In all, 11 participants aged 13 to 15 from one school in England participated. Cognitive interviews tested two items assessing descriptive norms (beliefs about what behaviors are typical), three assessing injunctive norms (beliefs about what is socially acceptable), and (for comparison) one assessing personal attitudes. Findings were summarized by drawing on interview notes. Summaries and interview notes were subjected to thematic analysis. For some participants, injunctive norms items required further explanation to clarify that items asked about others' views, not their own. Lack of certainty about, and perceived heterogeneity of, behaviors and views among a broad reference group detracted from answerability. Participants were better able to answer items for which they could draw on concrete experiences of observing or discussing relevant behaviors or social sanctions. Data suggest that a narrowed reference group could improve answerability for items assessing salient norms. Findings informed refinements to social norms measures. It is possible to develop social norms measures that are understandable and answerable for adolescents in England. Measures should assess norms that are salient and publicly manifest among a cohesive and influential reference group.

Crossing the Line: Evidence for the Categorization Theory of Spatial Voting

Abstract Bølstad and Dinas (2017) propose a model of spatial voting, based on social identity theory, that suggests supporting a candidate/policy on the other side of the ideological spectrum has a disutility that is not accounted for by common spatial models. Unfortunately, the data they use cannot speak directly to whether the disutility arises because individuals perceive their ideology as a social identity. We present the results of an experimental study that measures the norm against crossing the ideological spectrum; tests the cost of doing so, controlling for spatial effects; and demonstrates that this cost increases with the salience and strength of identity norms. By demonstrating the norm mechanism for the disutility of crossing the ideological spectrum, we provide strong support for B&D's model.

“Intervening Is a Good Thing but . . .”: The Role of Social Norms in Users’ Justifications of (Non-)Intervention Against Incivility

User intervention against incivility as social enforcement of democratic norms on social media platforms is considered an act of “good citizenship” by citizens and scholars alike. However, between ideals and behavior, multiple social norms are at play in shaping individuals’ sense of personal responsibility for intervening. This study explores the role of conflicting norms in situations requiring user intervention against online incivility. By combining the perspectives of norms as expectations and norms as cultural vocabularies, we investigate users’ salient norms, and how these norms influence users’ justifications for (non-)intervention. Based on qualitative interview data from Germany ( N = 20), we identified three distinct reasoning patterns employed to justify (non-)intervention: the pragmatic, the dismissive, and the aspirational. By identifying fault lines, our typology points to normative origins of ambivalence related to user intervention. The findings offer insights into strategies to motivate intervention against online incivility.

Culturally Anchored Mental-Health Attitudes: The Impact of Language

Culture plays a key role in the long-standing underutilization of professional mental-health services among immigrants and ethnic minorities, especially among Asian communities. Furthermore, language nativeness can modulate the salience of cultural norms. Through a series of four experimental studies ( N = 1,120), we evaluated whether bilingual speakers’ attitudes toward mental-health treatment are affected by whether they are using their native Chinese or foreign English. Overall, participants more strongly endorsed mental-health treatment when information was presented in English. The same outcome was found for participants residing in the United States and mainland China. Consistent with a language-priming-culture hypothesis, participants using Chinese endorsed mental-health treatment less when their affiliation with traditional Asian values was higher, whereas in English their recommendations remained independent of affiliation with traditional Asian values. In sum, these studies reveal the significance of language in culturally anchored mental-health attitudes.

How sport teaches values? The specific ability of intense bodily commitment to enhance norm adherence

How sport teaches values? The specific ability of intense bodily commitment to enhance norm adherence

Student, classroom, and teacher factors associated with teachers’ attunement to bullies and victims

AbstractTeachers are instrumental in antibullying efforts given their position of authority in the classroom context, yet teachers can only be effective at reducing victimization and bullying in their classrooms if they are aware of who is involved. Consequently, teachers’ attunement to bullies and victims is a critical component of social dynamics management and antibullying practices. Given the importance of teacher attunement, there is a pressing need to identify relevant factors related to the degree to which teachers are attuned to bullies and victims. The major objective of the current investigation was to examine student‐ (gender, popularity status), classroom‐ (average bullying, norm salience of bullying, popularity hierarchy, class size), and teacher‐level (gender, teaching experience) factors associated with teachers’ attunement to bullies and victims. Using a sample of students in 5th‐grade classrooms, we analyzed the likelihood of teachers being attuned to 267 bullies (76.8% boys) nested in 112 classrooms and 343 victims (55.1% boys) nested in 120 classrooms using multilevel mixed‐effects generalized linear models. Results indicated that teachers were more likely to be attuned to boy bullies and victims but less likely to be attuned to bullies and victims with higher popularity status. No classroom or teacher level factors related significantly to the likelihood of teachers’ attunement. Implications for social dynamics management and bullying intervention efforts are discussed.

Signaling norm salience through perceived peer counterfeit consumption

Purpose This paper aims to theorize that millennials' counterfeit buying behavior is partly driven by perceived peer counterfeit consumption – the perception that counterfeit luxury consumption is a norm within members of their own generation. Design/methodology/approach The research is based on two survey-based studies: Study 1 investigates the phenomenon on young millennials (n = 438) and Gen X (n = 374) using moderation analyses in PROCESS Macro; and Study 2 is based on young millennials (n = 643) and runs a partial least squares structural equation modeling model. Findings The findings reveal that perceived counterfeit consumption within own (vs other) generation leads to greater counterfeit purchase intention and this effect is stronger for young millennials (vs Gen X). Counterfeiting values (materialism, counterconformity and morality) strengthen the impact of perceived peer counterfeit consumption on the counterfeit purchase intention of young millennials, thereby establishing counterfeit luxury consumption as a salient norm. Practical implications To modify perceptions about peer counterfeiting norms, normative messages must communicate counterfeit avoidance among millennials through social media influencers. Luxury brand managers must focus on the experiential value of luxury and pursue unconventional luxury inspired by a sense of rebelliousness and independence. Originality/value This work demonstrates that millennials engage in counterfeit luxury consumption when they perceive it as a salient consumption norm among members of their own generation. It adds a novel construct of perceived counterfeit consumption and demonstrates the role of generation as a normative referent. The article provides a values-based motivational account of conformity to peer counterfeiting norms.

Investigating EFL Learners’ Ability to Analyse Poetic Language: A Pedagogical Corpus Stylistic Approach

Pedagogical stylistics refers to the application of the tools of stylistics in the teaching of the English language as a foreign or a second language. Teaching and learning poetry is challenging. Thus, pedagogical corpus stylistics (Henceforth, PCS) approach has been introduced to Iraqi undergraduate foreign language learners (EFL) to guide them to analyze poetic language. The study aims to make students interact with authentic examples of poetic language and answer questions about it. The main objective of the study is to examine whether PCS tools enable the learners to provide linguistic evidence from the poetic texts they are exposed to. This in turn ensures objective poetic analyses. Moreover, it aims to enable EFL Iraqi students to discover salient norms related to the Standard English language. The study reveals that the pedagogical corpus stylistic approach helps the students to discover language patterns using corpus tools with the help of the teacher’s guidance at the beginning but this eventually leads to independent learning and discoveries about poetic language.

What Does it Mean to be a Woman? How the Content of Gender Identity May Facilitate Women's Coping with Sexual Harassment.

Sexual harassment and other forms of gendered discrimination are social psychological phenomena, yet the psychological impact of sexual harassment has rarely been examined through a model which considers the role of diverse content of gender identity (i.e. norms). We used an experimental design to investigate how salient norms associated with the social identity of 'women' affect coping with sexual harassment. Participants who identified as women (N = 291) were randomly assigned to either a feminist, traditional feminine, or control norm condition, in which the salience of particular norms associated with womanhood was manipulated. Participants completed measures of personal growth (as a proxy for post-traumatic growth), and help-seeking intentions in response to a hypothetical sexual harassment scenario. Participants in the feminist condition reported significantly greater personal growth relative to those in the traditional feminine and control conditions. Participants in both the feminist and traditional feminine conditions reported significantly greater intentions to seek help from formal supports (e.g. primary care doctor), relative to those in the control condition. The findings suggest that the salience of social identities and their content may be valuable resources in promoting recovery following experiences of gendered discrimination and support the role of social identities in influencing post-trauma trajectories.

Salient deliberative norm types in comment sections on news sites

Civil and argumentative public discussions are considered crucial for functioning democracies. Among other factors, the quality of user discussions of political issues on news sites depends on prevalent discussion norms. We integrate injunctive and descriptive norms into news comment research, assuming that the degree of salience of the respective norm influences the commenting behavior. Furthermore, we discuss how technical affordances such as default comment sorting determine the comment visibility and thus the salience of norms. Using data from a content analysis of 8162 comments on eight German news sites, we investigate how the two norm types influence deliberative forms of commenting. The results show that different types of salient injunctive and descriptive norms promote norm-compliant commenting. Furthermore, the default comment sorting can determine which comments are more or less salient. The results underline the importance of distinguishing different norm types in analyzing the quality of user comments in comment sections.

Observability and social image: On the robustness and fragility of reciprocity

Theoretical and empirical findings suggest that individuals are sensitive to the observability of their actions and the downstream consequences of this observability. We connect three streams of literature (social preferences, behavior change, and social norms) to investigate the conditions for which these claims are valid. Across multiple high-powered studies, we examine the mechanisms through which observability of one’s actions affects pro-sociality, when and why it sometimes fails, and how to utilize social and economic incentives to enact behavior change. Our three main results are: (i) observability alone has very little positive effect and can even backfire; (ii) inequality aversion drives the observed backfiring of observability; (iii) increasing the salience of norms can mitigate unintended consequences and successfully increase pro-sociality. From a policy perspective, our results highlight the potential pitfalls of simple behavioral interventions.