Given the aim to motivate consumers to behave in an environmentally friendly manner, there is a need to understand how consumers’ environmental behavior can be influenced and what variables predict environmental behavior. This article applies structural equation models (path analyses) to investigate these issues, with experienced social norm, assumed consequences of behavior and personal norm as independent variables of recycling behavior. The study is based on a Norwegian survey. As predicted, the social norm revealed no direct link to behavior. Rather, the effect of the social norm seemed to depend on an intervening personal norm. The possible social pressure exercised by family members was investigated. Assumed environmental consequences of behavior and reported behavior were found to be only loosely connected. Furthermore, assumed consequences of behavior revealed no mediating effect on the link between personal norm and behavior, which is contrary to what Schwartz’s theory on altruistic behavior would imply.

The influence of social norms in the context of intergroup relations has long been recognized by social psychologists, yet research on intergroup contact and social norms have usually remained disconnected. We explored the influence of direct and indirect friendship on attitudes towards ethnic minorities in Norway, and in particular the role of in-group norms about the social approval of intergroup contact as a mechanism that distinguishes direct from indirect contact. Using a sample of school students from 89 classrooms (N=823), we tested this hypothesis with both one level and multi-level structural equation modelling (ML-SEM), where the amount of contact of other classroom members was considered as a form of indirect contact. The results suggest that the intergroup contact of other in-group members (in-group friends or classmates) affects attitudes towards the out-group by changing the perception of in-group norms and by reducing intergroup anxiety. In contrast, direct contact (or contact at the individual level in the case of ML-SEM), improved attitudes only by reducing intergroup anxiety, and did not affect the perception of in-group norms.

Three studies examined the hypothesis that system justification is negatively associated with collective protest against ingroup disadvantage. Effects of uncertainty salience, ingroup identification, and disruptive vs. nondisruptive protest were also investigated.In Study 1, college students who were exposed to an uncertainty salience manipulation and who scored higher on system justification were less likely to protest against the governmental bailout of Wall Street. In Study 2, May Day protesters in Greece who were primed with a system---justifying stereotype exhibited less group---based anger and willingness to protest. In Study 3, members of a British teachers' union who were primed with a "system---rejecting" mindset exhibited decreased system justification and increased willingness to protest. The effect of system justification on nondisruptive protest was mediated by group---based anger. Across very different contexts, measures, and methods, the results reveal that, even among political activists, system justification plays a significant role in undermining willingness to protest.

The findings clarify the relationship between age and SWB by demonstrating that the paradox of well-being is conditional on the economic context. Implications for individual- and country-level strategies for successful aging are discussed.

Psychological theories of aging highlight the importance of social context. However, very little research has distinguished empirically between older people’s perception of how others in their social context perceive them (personal meta-perceptions) and the shared perceptions in society (societal meta-perceptions). Drawing on theories of intergroup relations and stereotyping and using a multilevel perspective, this article examines how well older people’s perceptions of age discrimination (PAD) are predicted by (a) older people’s personal meta-perceptions, (b) societal meta-perceptions, and (c) social norms of intolerance toward age prejudice. Aging meta-perceptions are differentiated into the cognitive and affective components of ageism. Multilevel analyses of data from the European Social Survey (Nover 70 years of age = 8,123, 29 countries; European Social Survey (ESS) Round 4 Data, 2008) confirmed that older people’s personal meta-perceptions of negative age stereotypes and specific intergroup emotions (pity, envy, contempt) are associated with higher PAD. However, at the societal-level, only paternalistic meta-perceptions were consistently associated with greater PAD. The results show that a few meta-perceptions operate only as a psychological phenomenon in explaining PAD, some carry consonant, and others carry contrasting effects at the societal-level of analysis. This evidence extends previous research on aging meta-perceptions by showing that both the content of meta-perceptions and the level of analysis at which they are assessed make distinct contributions to PAD. Moreover, social norms of intolerance of age prejudice have a larger statistical effect than societal meta-perceptions. Social interventions would benefit from considering these differential findings.