Managing social norms for persuasive impact
Open accessAbstract
In order to mobilise action against a social problem, public service communicators often include normative information in their persuasive appeals. Such messages can be either effective or ineffective because they can normalise either desirable or undesirable conduct. To examine the implications in an environmental context, visitors to Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park were exposed to messages that admonished against the theft of petrified wood. In addition, the messages conveyed information either about descriptive norms (the levels of others' behaviour) or injunctive norms (the levels of others' disapproval) regarding such thievery. Results showed that focusing message recipients on descriptive normative information was most likely to increase theft, whereas focusing them on injunctive normative information was most likely to suppress it. Recommendations are offered for optimising the impact of normative messages in situations characterised by objectionable levels of undesirable conduct.
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Environmental messages may be more effective when they appeal to normative values and morality or contain practical information about how to change behaviour, rather than just containing factual information.
“Environmental messages may be more effective when they appeal to normative values and morality or contain practical information about how to change behaviour, rather than just containing factual information [15][16][17][18][19].”
From Promoting the Use of Reusable Coffee Cups through Environmental Messaging, the Provision of Alternatives and Financial Incentives (2018) · cites this paper as [16]
The Conclusion reports that, for messages about theft of petrified wood, an injunctive appeal saying theft was strongly disapproved was more effective than a descriptive message saying theft was frequent. This supports the normative-appeal part of the claim. The paper does not establish that practical instructions outperform factual information, nor does it compare the injunctive appeal with factual information generally. (LLM, conf=0.85)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredPrevious research often used primes in the form of direct appeals, such as "please do not litter" or "please don't remove the petrified wood from the park".
“It should be said that previous research often used primes in the form of direct appeals, such as “please do not litter” (Cialdini et al., 1990) or “please don’t remove the petrified wood from the park” (Cialdini et al., 2006).”
From Do Salient Social Norms Moderate Mortality Salience Effects? A (Challenging) Meta-Analysis of Terror Management Studies (2023) · cites this paper as Cialdini et al., 2006
Conformist behavioural responses to majority information have been found for paying taxes, corrupt behaviour, and readiness to steal.
“The same type of conformist behavioural response has been found with respect to majority information about various socially highly relevant actions, for instance, paying taxes (Hallsworth et al. [2017]), as well as corrupt behaviour (Köbis et al. [2015]) and even readiness to steal (Cialdini et al. [2006]).”
From Science Communication and the Problematic Impact of Descriptive Norms (2023) · cites this paper as Cialdini et al. [2006]
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- Authors
- Cialdini, R. B., Demaine, L. J., Sagarin, B. J., Barrett, D. W., Rhoads, K., & Winter, P. L.
- Affiliations
- Arizona State University (US)
- Northern Illinois University (US)
- Western Connecticut State University (US)
- University of Southern California (US)
- US Forest Service (US)
- Corresponding author
- Cialdini, Robert B.
- Venue
- Social Influence
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2006-03
- Volume
- 1
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 3-15
- ISSN
- 1553-4510 (ISSN-L)
- 1553-4529
- OpenAlex
- W2161535853
- Cited by
- 1,017
- References
- 48
- Citations by year
- 2026: 50 · 2025: 72 · 2024: 58 · 2023: 75 · 2022: 101 · 2021: 101 · 2020: 88 · 2019: 59 · 2018: 73 · 2017: 70 · 2016: 54 · 2015: 49 · 2014: 45 · 2013: 39 · 2012: 20
- FWCI
- 35.87
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Social Influence (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- U.S. Forest Service
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychology of Social Influence
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental Education and Sustainability
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Keywords
- social norms, descriptive norms, injunctive norms, normative messages, persuasion, Petrified Forest National Park, environmental behaviour, message framing, public service communication
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