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Cited by 639Environmental Education and SustainabilityPsychology of Social InfluenceBehavioral Health and Interventions

Dynamic Norms Promote Sustainable Behavior, Even if It Is Counternormative

Sparkman, Gregg, Walton, Gregory M.·2017·Psychological Science
DOI 10.1177/0956797617719950
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Abstract

It is well known that people conform to normative information about other people’s current attitudes and behaviors. Do they also conform to dynamic norms—information about how other people’s behavior is changing over time? We investigated this question in three online and two field experiments. Experiments 1 through 4 examined high levels of meat consumption, a normative and salient behavior that is decreasing in the United States. Dynamic norms motivated change despite prevailing static norms, increasing interest in eating less meat (Experiments 1–3) and doubling meatless orders at a café (Experiment 4). Mediators included the anticipation of less meat eating in the future ( preconformity) and the inference that reducing meat consumption mattered to other people (Experiments 2 and 3). In Experiment 5, we took advantage of a natural comparison to provide evidence that dynamic norms can also strengthen social-norm interventions when the static norm is positive; a positive dynamic norm resulted in reduced laundry loads and water use over 3 weeks during a drought.

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  • Sparkman and Walton found that US lunch-goers informed most people in the US consume high levels of meat ordered more meaty meals than controls.

    “Similarly, US lunch-goers informed that most people in the US consume high levels of meat tended to order more meaty lunch meals than controls (Sparkman and Walton [2017])”

    From Science Communication and the Problematic Impact of Descriptive Norms (2023) · cites this paper as Sparkman and Walton [2017]

  • Some kinds of descriptive norms, such as dynamic norms or don't-versus do-norms, have been found to be more powerful than others.

    “And some kinds of descriptive norms (for example, dynamic norms, or don't-versus do-norms) have been found to be more powerful than others (Sparkman and Walton [2017]; Bergquist and Nilsson [2019]; Mortensen et al. [2019]).”

    From Science Communication and the Problematic Impact of Descriptive Norms (2023) · cites this paper as Sparkman and Walton [2017]

  • Some of the ten claims are closely related to statements used in the reviewed studies, or are supported by other studies.

    “some of these claims are very closely related to the statements used in the studies reviewed (see claim 2 and Sparkman and Walton [2017]; claim 4 and Gerber and Rogers [2009]; claim 5 and Duguid and Thomas-Hunt [2015]), or are supported by other studies”

    From Science Communication and the Problematic Impact of Descriptive Norms (2023) · cites this paper as Sparkman and Walton [2017]

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Authors
Sparkman, G., & Walton, G. M.
Affiliations
Stanford University (US)
Corresponding author
Sparkman, Gregg
ORCID
Venue
Psychological Science
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Published
2017-09-29
Volume
28
Issue
11
Pages
1663-1674
ISSN
  • 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
  • 1467-9280
DOI
10.1177/0956797617719950
OpenAlex
W2758069137
Cited by
639
References
29
Citations by year
2026: 74 · 2025: 109 · 2024: 98 · 2023: 82 · 2022: 88 · 2021: 87 · 2020: 56 · 2019: 25 · 2018: 18 · 2017: 1
FWCI
57.25
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations
  • Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • OSF Preprints (OSF Preprints) (submittedVersion)
Topics
  • Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law › Environmental Education and Sustainability
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychology of Social Influence
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
Keywords
dynamic norms, social norms, sustainable behavior, meat consumption, social norms interventions, water conservation, drought
MeSH terms
Adult, Humans, Motivation, Social Behavior, Social Conformity, Social Perception, Health Behavior, Social Norms

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