How to Solve the Social Norm Conflict Dilemma of Green Consumption: The Moderating Effect of Self-Affirmation

Social norms are important social factors that affect individual behavioral change. Using social norms to promote green consumption is receiving increasing attention. However, due to the different formation processes and mechanisms of the behavioral influence of the different types of social norms, using social norms to promote green consumption often has social norm conflict situations (injunctive norms + negative descriptive norms). Thus, it is difficult to attain the maximum utility of social norms. The present research found that social norm conflict weakens the role of injunctive norms in promoting green consumption. Specifically, negative descriptive norms weaken the role of injunctive norms in promoting green consumption. Alienation, which manifests through powerlessness and meaninglessness, plays a mediating role in the relationship between social norm conflict and green consumption. Self-affirmation moderates the mediating role of alienation between social norm conflicts and green consumption. Self-affirmation reduces the alienation caused by social norm conflict, thereby alleviating the weakening effect of social norm conflict on green consumption.

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How social norms affect alcohol dependence: the mediating role of perceived benefits and alcohol identity

British Food Journal ◽

10.1108/bfj-12-2019-0942 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 122 (12) ◽

pp. 3935-3946

Author(s):

Shih-Tse Edward Wang ◽

Yu-Ting Liao

Keyword(s):

Social Norms ◽

Alcohol Dependence ◽

Structural Equation ◽

Equation Modeling ◽

Perceived Benefits ◽

Content Type ◽

Mediating Role ◽

The Social ◽

Study Results

PurposeAlthough the association between social norms and alcohol dependence has been noted, how social norms cause alcohol dependence remains unclear. This study thus investigated how social norms affect the perceived benefits of drinking and alcohol identity, which in turn affect alcohol dependence.Design/methodology/approachConvenience sampling was used, and 452 valid questionnaires were collected from alcohol (specifically, beer) consumers over the age of 18; answers were analyzed through structural equation modeling.FindingsSocial norms positively affected the perceived benefits of drinking and alcohol identity; alcohol identity positively affected alcohol dependence; moreover, alcohol identity fully mediated the effects of social norms and the perceived benefits of drinking on alcohol dependence.Originality/valueHow social norms affect alcohol dependence has rarely been studied; thus, the present study has value for integrating the findings in the lines of research on social norms and alcohol dependence. Based on the study results, the authors recommend that policies aimed at discouraging alcohol dependence should focus on mitigating the social pressure to drink and the perceived benefits of drinking as well as labeling others as drinkers.

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The Relative Importance of Values, Social Norms, and Enjoyment-Based Motivation in Explaining Pro-Environmental Product Purchasing Behavior in Apparel Domain

Sustainability ◽

10.3390/su12176797 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 12 (17) ◽

pp. 6797 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Insook Ahn ◽

Soo Kim ◽

Munyoung Kim

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Social Norms ◽

Intrinsic Motivation ◽

Social Norm ◽

Environmental Issues ◽

Relative Importance ◽

Purchasing Behavior ◽

Injunctive Norms ◽

Descriptive Norms ◽

Consumption Behavior

Changing consumption behavior can offer co-benefits in reduction of environmental issues and encouraging improvements to environmentally friendly or sustainable production. We propose a novel value-social norm-enjoyment-based motivation (VSE) model and test the factors that influence individual pro-environmental apparel purchasing behavior. Data were obtained from 353 college students in Korea and analyzed by using SEM. Our results show that individuals who endorse bio-altruistic values who engage in eco-friendly environmental behavior in apparel domain are influenced by descriptive norms and injunctive norms. Further, enjoyment-based motivation was found to be a key mediator among bio-altruistic value, descriptive norms, and injunctive norms on pro-environmental purchasing behavior. However, injunctive norms do not directly influence purchasing behavior, but rather, are integrated to enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation, then indirectly affect purchasing behavior.

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'Welcome' Changes? Descriptive and Injunctive Norms in a Wikipedia Sub-Community

10.31235/osf.io/yr6a3 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

Jonathan T. Morgan ◽

Anna Filippova

Keyword(s):

Social Norms ◽

Future Research ◽

Injunctive Norms ◽

Normative Influence ◽

Descriptive Norms ◽

Online Groups ◽

Open Collaboration ◽

Sustainability Research ◽

Focus Theory

Open online communities rely on social norms for behavior regulation, group cohesion, and sustainability. Research on the role of social norms online has mainly focused on one source of influence at a time, making it difficult to separate different normative influences and understand their interactions. In this study, we use the Focus Theory to examine interactions between several sources of normative influence in a Wikipedia sub-community: local descriptive norms, local injunctive norms, and norms imported from similar sub- communities. We find that exposure to injunctive norms has a stronger effect than descriptive norms, that the likelihood of performing a behavior is higher when both injunctive and descriptive norms are congruent, and that conflicting social norms may negatively impact pro-normative behavior. We contextualize these findings through member interviews, and discuss their implications for both future research on normative influence in online groups and the design of systems that support open collaboration.

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The role of message strategies in promoting eco-friendly accommodations

International Journal of Culture Tourism and Hospitality Research ◽

10.1108/ijcthr-07-2016-0067 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 10 (4) ◽

pp. 410-423 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Johanna Zanon ◽

Karin Teichmann

Keyword(s):

Social Norms ◽

Social Norm ◽

Content Type ◽

Green Consumption ◽

Advertising Appeals ◽

Message Source ◽

Emotional Appeal ◽

Message Appeals ◽

Promotional Message

Purpose This paper aims to examine how different levels of message appeals, message sources and social norms influence the purchase (i.e. booking) intention of eco-accommodations. Design/methodology/approach The proposed hypothesis was tested using a 2 (message appeal; rational vs emotional) × 2 (message source; expert vs blogger) × 2 (social norm; injunctive vs descriptive) between-subject experimental online design. Findings Advertising appeals and social norms are major predictors of eco-accommodation’s ad effectiveness and message appeals, sources and social norms, and their classifications interrelate with each other. The highest intention to purchase an eco-accommodation was found for a promotional message, which is sent by an expert, expresses a rational appeal and includes a descriptive social norm. Perceived emotional value in contrast was increased with a blogger statement including an emotional appeal and an injunctive social norm. Research limitations/implications The used experiment only focused on one product, namely, eco-friendly accommodations. The impacts of different message contents might vary as a function of the promoted product. Practical implications To develop persuasive messages which combine all three message contents, experts should craft messages with rational characteristics and address a descriptive social norm. Originality/value Although consumers show a desire to buy eco-friendly tourism products, it seems that supply actually overweighs demand. As research in the field of eco-accommodations is still limited, this study examines the role of different combined promotional message contents to further clarify the apparent gap in green consumption.

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The ethics of inattention: revitalising civil inattention as a privacy-protecting mechanism in public spaces

Ethics and Information Technology ◽

10.1007/s10676-020-09575-7 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Tamar Sharon ◽

Bert-Jaap Koops

Keyword(s):

Social Norms ◽

Public Space ◽

Social Norm ◽

Public Spaces ◽

Private Sphere ◽

Erving Goffman ◽

Policy Debates ◽

Digital Surveillance ◽

The Social

AbstractSocieties evolve practices that reflect social norms of appropriateness in social interaction, for example when and to what extent one should respect the boundaries of another person’s private sphere. One such practice is what the sociologist Erving Goffman called civil inattention—the social norm of showing a proper amount of indifference to others—which functions as an almost unnoticed yet highly potent privacy-preserving mechanism. These practices can be disrupted by technologies that afford new forms of intrusions. In this paper, we show how new networked technologies, such as facial recognition (FR), challenge our ability to practice civil inattention. We argue for the need to revitalise, in academic and policy debates, the role of civil inattention and related practices in regulating behaviour in public space. Our analysis highlights the relational nature of privacy and the importance of social norms in accomplishing and preserving it. While our analysis goes some way in supporting current calls to ban FR technology, we also suggest that, pending a ban and in light of the power of norms to limit what is otherwise technically possible, cultivating new practices of civil inattention may help address the challenges raised by FR and other forms of digital surveillance in public.

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Social Norms in Organizations

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190224851.013.139 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Jennifer E. Dannals ◽

Dale T. Miller

Keyword(s):

Social Norms ◽

Social Norm ◽

Future Research ◽

Descriptive Norms ◽

Negative Behaviors ◽

Positive Externalities ◽

The Social ◽

Group Members ◽

Norm Emergence ◽

Over Time

Social norms are a powerful force in organizations. While different literatures across fields have developed differing definitions and categories, social norms are commonly defined as and divided into descriptive norms, i.e., the most commonly enacted behavior, and prescriptive norms, i.e., the behavior most commonly viewed as acceptable or appropriate. Different literatures have also led to differing focuses of investigation for social norms research. Economic theorists have tended to examine social norm emergence by studying how social norms evolve to reduce negative or create positive externalities in situations. Organizational theorists and sociologists have instead focused on the social pressures which maintain social norms in groups over time, and eventually can lead group members to internalize the social norm. In contrast, social psychologists have tended to focus on how to use social norms in interventions aimed at reducing negative behaviors. Integrating these divergent streams of research proves important for future research.

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Do open online projects create social norms?

Journal of Institutional Economics ◽

10.1017/s1744137417000182 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 14 (1) ◽

pp. 45-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

GODEFROY DANG NGUYEN ◽

SYLVAIN DEJEAN ◽

NICOLAS JULLIEN

Keyword(s):

Social Norms ◽

Instrumental Variables ◽

Online Community ◽

Social Norm ◽

Dictator Game ◽

Surprising Result ◽

Large Sample ◽

The Social ◽

Equal Split

AbstractWhile most scholars emphasize the role of prosocial motivations of contributors in building open online communities, we show that mere users also adhere to their norms of behaviour to some extent. To this end we designed an original experimentation protocol. With the help of the French Wikimédia Foundation, we questioned a large sample (n = 13,000) of Wikipedia users (whether contributors or not). They were invited, after having expressing their feelings about Wikipédia, to play a Dictator Game. A large proportion of respondents, including those who were merely users, chose an equal split (66% of the sample). This surprising result suggests that they have adhered to a social norm of sharing. Investigating the determinants of this result, we prove that an involvement measured by usage (intensity and variety), as well as by attachment to, and time spent, on Wikipedia, is correlated with the choice of the 50/50 split in the dictator game (DG). Furthermore, the method of instrumental variables gives an indication that adherence to the social norm of sharing may be endogenously determined by involvement in the open online community. Our result highlights the importance of interactions with the institutional and technical frameworks of the community.

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Supplemental Material for The Social Legacies of Conflict: The Mediating Role of Mental Health With Regard to the Association Between War Exposure and Social Capital of Burundian Refugees

Psychology of Violence ◽

10.1037/vio0000348.supp ◽

2020 ◽

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Social Capital ◽

Mediating Role ◽

The Social

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The social legacies of conflict: The mediating role of mental health with regard to the association between war exposure and social capital of Burundian refugees.

Psychology of Violence ◽

10.1037/vio0000348 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 40-49

Author(s):

Roos Haer ◽

Florian Scharpf ◽

Tobias Hecker

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Social Capital ◽

Mediating Role ◽

The Social

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Mediasi Kepuasan Kerja dan Stres Kerja pada Hubungan antara Program Jamsostek dan Kinerja Karyawan Studi Kasus pada Perusahaan Swasta di DIY dan Solo

Jurnal Maksipreneur Manajemen Koperasi dan Entrepreneurship ◽

10.30588/jmp.v3i1.89 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (1) ◽

pp. 75

Author(s):

Eny Sulistyowati ◽

Totok Danangdjojo

Keyword(s):

Job Satisfaction ◽

Social Security ◽

Job Stress ◽

Work Stress ◽

Program Performance ◽

Social Security Program ◽

Mediating Role ◽

The Social ◽

The Relationship

This study aims to explain the influence of the Social Security program on performance and job satisfaction and job stress as a mediating variable. In addition, this study also describes the effect of job satisfaction on the performance and the effect of work stress on performance. The relationship of each variable in this research is to be measured by conducting a survey on 145 employees of private companies that included in Social Security program on DIY and Solo. Then the path analisys used to test the effect of social security program performance in mediation by job satisfaction, performance and job stress, job satisfaction, and examines the effect on the performance and the effect of work stress on performance. The results showed that the social security program significant positively affects job satisfaction and performance. Job satisfaction was also positively and significantly affect performance. Even though mediating role of job satisfaction in the relationship between social security program performance partial. Because merely direct relationship between social security program with greater performance than the mediating role of job satisfaction. Social Security program did not significantly affect the stress of work, as well as job stress did not significantly affect performance. Therefore, the mediating role of work stress on the relationship between social security program with the performance did not occur. Individual differences and work experience may be a factor that causes no significant relationship between the two variables.

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