Do you wash your hands after using the bathroom? Two studies about
communicating the injunctive and descriptive norm, and practicing informational
and normative social influence in order to promote handwashing behavior.
Do you wash your hands after using the bathroom? Two studies about
communicating the injunctive and descriptive norm, and practicing informational
and normative social influence in order to promote handwashing behavior.
Increasing handwashing compliance after using the bathroom was the main goal of
the two studies. Handwashing is of critical importance for preventing the spread
of bacteria. Most people do know this, but they don’t behave in
accordance to this fact. Lack of knowledge does not explain the discrepancy and
therefore we investigated two strategies from the social influence literature.
The effects on the handwashing behavior were observed unobtrusively. In the
first study the impact of communicating the injunctive and descriptive norms
regarding handwashing were examined. Results indicate that handwashing is
promoted by communicating the injunctive norm. The impact of the descriptive
norm is less important. In the second study informational and normative social
influence were examined under different experimental conditions. Both
informational and normative social influence promoted handwashing behavior and
increased handwashing compliance after using the bathroom. Implications for
influencing automatic and routine behavior by the use of communication and
persuasive strategies are discussed.
Normative Social Influence is Underdetected
