Self-persuading norms: Adding a self-persuasion technique strengthens the influence of descriptive social norms. (1st December 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bergquist, Magnus; Ejelöv, Emma
• Is Part Of: Social influence. Volume 17:Number 1(2022)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 16
• Publication Date: 2022-12-01
• Subjects: Social norms -- self-persuasion -- social influence -- pro-health choice; Social influence -- Periodicals; 302.13
• DOI: 10.1080/15534510.2022.2047776
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1553-4510

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Social norms have been implemented to change a variety of behaviors. Yet, these studies show noticeable dispersion of effects. We suggest that such dispersion is partially due to people perceiving reasons for following a certain norm to be more or less appealing. In testing this proposition, we couple descriptive norms with a self-persuading technique (i.e. the self-persuading norm). We propose that the self-persuading norm operate in two steps: 1) self-persuasion leads to value-matched information, 2) value-matched information is more self-relevant, making the norm more influential. Across three experiments, we consistently found that self-persuading norms are more influential than simple descriptive norms and a control condition. The practical applications are straightforward: adding self-persuasive content seems to strengthen the descriptive norm.