Trending Norms: A Lever for Encouraging Behaviors Performed by the Minority
Abstract
If many people currently engage in a behavior, others are likely to follow suit. The current article extends research on these descriptive norms to examine the unique effect of trending norms: norms in which the number of people engaging in a behavior is increasing—and even if this is only among a minority of people: trending minority norms. The current research shows people conform more to these trending minority norms than a minority norm alone, or a no norm control condition—even though the norms addressed behaviors that differed from the target behavior. This demonstrates a distinct effect of trends and a strategy for leveraging normative information to increase conformity to behaviors not yet performed by a majority. Findings support that this increased conformity emerges because people predict the increase in prevalence will continue. An internal meta-analysis examining all data we collected on this topic supports these conclusions.
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Mortensen et al. found that students told only a minority of peers engaged in water conservation increased their water use compared with controls.
“students told that only a minority of their peers engaged in water conservation subsequently increased the amount of water they used compared to controls (Mortensen et al. [2019]).”
From Science Communication and the Problematic Impact of Descriptive Norms (2023) · cites this paper as Mortensen et al. [2019]
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 Mortensen et al. [2019]
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- Authors
- Mortensen, C. R., Neel, R., Cialdini, R. B., Jaeger, C. M., Jacobson, R. P., & Ringel, M. M.
- Affiliations
- Metropolitan State University of Denver (US)
- University of Iowa (US)
- Arizona State University (US)
- California State University, San Marcos (US)
- University of New Mexico (US)
- University of California, Irvine (US)
- Corresponding author
- Mortensen, Chad R.
- Venue
- Social Psychological and Personality Science
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2017-12-27
- Volume
- 10
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 201-210
- ISSN
- 1948-5506 (ISSN-L)
- 1948-5514
- OpenAlex
- W2778068175
- Cited by
- 221
- References
- 40
- Citations by year
- 2026: 26 · 2025: 40 · 2024: 24 · 2023: 37 · 2022: 32 · 2021: 29 · 2020: 16 · 2019: 9 · 2018: 7 · 2017: 1
- FWCI
- 23.10
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Social Psychological and Personality Science (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Psychology of Social Influence
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Behavioral Health and Interventions
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › General Decision Sciences › Decision-Making and Behavioral Economics
- Keywords
- descriptive norms, conformity, social influence, normative information, behavior change, trend forecasting
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