Social Norm

Question 1

Social Norms

Answer 1

• Defined as an individual’s beliefs about the common and accepted behaviors within a group.
• Can be descriptive (what most people do) or injunctive (what people approve or disapprove of).

Question 2

Normative Social Influence

Answer 2

• Refers to changes in behavior, attitudes, or beliefs due to the perceived norms of a group.
• Often operates unconsciously, leading individuals to underestimate its impact on their actions.

Question 3

Behavior Domains & Applications

Answer 3

• Personalized feedback showing discrepancies between perceived and actual norms effectively reduces drinking rates among college students.
• Social norm messaging has successfully reduced water and energy consumption.
• Comparisons of individual usage with neighborhood averages have encouraged reductions in overuse.
• Marketing and advertising leverage norms by highlighting trends, popularity, or collective behavior.

Question 4

Magnetic Middle Effect

Answer 4

• Highlighting norms can lead individuals below the norm to increase the targeted behavior, but it may also cause those above the norm to regress (boomerang effect).
• Supplementing with social approval or disapproval cues can counter this effect.

Question 5

Moderators of Effectiveness

Answer 5

• Magnetic Middle Effect
• Personal Values: Normative influence is weaker among individuals with strong personal convictions on the issue.
• Social Identity: Normative messages are more impactful when they align with the norms of an individual’s in-group.
• Cultural Norms: Both individualistic and collectivistic cultures are influenced by norms, though the strength and nature of the influence may vary.
• Trends & Activations: Salient cues

Question 6

Tightness-Looseness Framework

Answer 6

• Tight Cultures: Strong social norms with low tolerance for deviance. Examples: Pakistan, Singapore, South Korea.
• Loose Cultures: Weak social norms with high tolerance for deviance. Examples: Brazil, Netherlands, United States.

Key Differentiators:
- Social Norms: Tight cultures exhibit strict adherence and enforcement, while loose cultures are more permissive.
- Situational Strength: Everyday social situations in tight cultures are more predictable and regulated compared to those in loose cultures.

Question 7

Historical and Ecological Roots

Answer 7

• Tightness is linked to societies with greater historical and ecological challenges, such as high population density, resource scarcity, natural disasters, or disease prevalence.
• These conditions necessitate stronger norms to promote cooperation and survival.

Question 8

Institutional Pattern (Tightness-Looseness)

Answer 8

• Tight cultures often feature restrictive governmental, media, and legal systems with higher levels of monitoring and punishment.
• Loose cultures allow greater freedom and variability in behaviors within institutions and society.

Question 9

Individual Psychological Profile (T-L)

Answer 9

• Tight Cultures:
  
  • Emphasize self-regulation and impulse control.
  • Higher need for structure and chronic awareness of normative expectations.
  • Prevention-focused mindset (avoidance of mistakes and sanctions).
• Loose Cultures:
  
  • Adaptability to diverse behaviors.
  • Lower need for structure and constraints.

Behavioral Patterns:
- People in tight cultures exhibit greater self-monitoring and adherence to normative behaviors.
- In loose cultures, individuals face fewer behavioral restrictions and more flexibility in everyday actions.

Question 10

Implications & Applications (T-L)

Answer 10

1. Cultural Variation:
   
   • Tightness-looseness is distinct from collectivism/individualism, power distance, and other cultural dimensions.
   • Example: Germany (tight and individualistic) vs. Brazil (loose and collectivistic).
2. Practical Relevance:
   
   • Useful in organizational management, policy-making, and intercultural training.
   • Helps explain challenges in cross-cultural interactions and adjustments, such as the stress experienced when transitioning between tight and loose cultures.
3. Conflict and Misunderstanding:
   
   • Differences in tightness-looseness often underlie international and intercultural tensions, as these create conflicting views of morality and societal functioning.

Question 11

Social Norm Correlation

Answer 11

• The impact of the descriptive norm was bigger than the impact of people’s own prior attitude (.18 vs .33)
• People didn’t realize that the descriptive norm was persuasive (between .25 and .40)

Question 12

Why and when people conform to descriptive to norms

Answer 12

• Need to belong: motivation to act in ways that will be approved of by other people in the local environment
• Need to know: motivation to act in ways that are objectively smart or sensible in the context of the local environment

Implications
- when people feel a stronger “need to belong” (when people worry more about others’ approval) or “need to know” (when people experience more uncertainty) they are more likely to conform

Question 13

Threats and Conformity

Answer 13

• When people are more worried about threats of various kinds, they are more likely to conform
• Especially when the threat is infectious disease

Question 14

Culture and Conformity

Answer 14

Individualistic cultures value personal autonomy, self-responsibility, and uniqueness — direct contrast to normative social influence

• A meta-analysis of the research on normative social influence found that experiments conducted in individualistic cultures produced larger effects than experiments conducted in collectivistic cultures
• Lots of evidence has shown that there are stronger conformity pressures, and higher levels of conformity, in collectivistic cultures