Construction of Meaning during a Pandemic: The Forgotten Role of Social Norms. Issue 14 (5th December 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Rimal, Rajiv N.; Storey, J. Douglas
• Is Part Of: Health communication. Volume 35:Issue 14(2020)
• Page Start: 1732
• Page End: 1734
• Publication Date: 2020-12-05
• Subjects: Communication in medicine -- Periodicals; Health in mass media -- Periodicals; 362.1014
• DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2020.1838091
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1041-0236

Abstract

ABSTRACT: How social norms are formed likely has a bearing on the mechanisms underlying their effects on behavioral outcomes. We propose three mechanisms of norms formation – through direct experience, symbolically through media, or imaginatively – and introduce ideas about normative durability, normative subscription, normative volume, personal agency, and polarization of norms – that likely have a bearing on how norms affect behaviors. The COVID-19 pandemic has important implications for how norms are formed, which in turn invoke different underlying mechanisms in the relationship between social norms and behaviors. We propose a number of hypotheses for future studies to test.