Normative Social Influence Across Cultures: The impact of injunctive and descriptive social norms in message-based persuasion.

Abstract

This research seeks to understand how normative appeals differentially affect

behavioral change across cultures. Two types of social information commonly used in

persuasion include descriptive norms (i.e., information regarding the frequency of specific

behaviors in a situation) and injunctive norms (i.e., forms of social coercion that tell people

what ought to be done). A combination of three experiments and a field study systematically

examined the effectiveness of different types of social norms in cultures that vary on their

strengths of norms—or tightness looseness. In general, normative appeals differentially

affected behavioral change across cultures. More specifically, both injunctive norm and

descriptive norms were more effective than the control in influencing behavioral intentions in a

tight culture versus a loose culture (e.g., China versus the U.S.) (study 1). In loose cultures,

injunctive norm appeals showed a “boomerang” effect, whereby exposure to injunctive norms

decreased, rather than increased the amount of donation compared to control (study 2).

Further, in loose cultures, the injunctive norm message enhanced the strength of the threat to

freedom and elicited psychological reactance, which in turn decreased their intention to follow

the advocated behavior (study 3). The results provided evidence that psychological reactance

contributed to injunctive norm’s “boomerang” effect. Finally, a field study (study 4) showed

injunctive norm messages represented to be a promising technique for “nudging” water

conservation behavior. Unexpectedly, the results showed that an injunctive norm message

coercive words messages were more effective in promoting water-saving behavior than

injunctive norm message without coercive words. Theoretical and practical implications are

discussed.