Do referendum results change norm perceptions and personal opinions?

Jung, Jae-hee; Tavits, Margit

doi:10.1016/j.electstud.2021.102307

Cited by 9 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Nevertheless, if an institution can accurately convey the majority opinion in the community, individuals may effectively modify their perceptions of social norms. Supporting this notion, Jung and Tavits (2021) demonstrated that the Irish referendum, which permits legislation for abortion, changed both the status quo and directional norms perceptions towards the referendum result. Conversely, there was no significant shift in private attitudes.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ordinance influences individuals' perceptions towards prospects of social circumstance but not the status quo: An experimental field study on sexual minorities issues in Japan

Miyajima

Nakawake

Meng

et al. 2023

Asian J of Social Psycho

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Scientific evidence shows that institutional decisions can change individuals' private attitudes towards relevant issues. However, little is known about their effect on individuals' perceptions of social norms. This intriguing question has gained the attention of scholars. Nonetheless, the findings are primarily observed only in samples of the Western, Educated, Industrialised, Rich, and Democratic countries, leading to doubts about their generalisability. This study experimentally tested residents' (N = 411) reactions to the new Tokyo ordinance prohibiting discrimination against sexual minorities enacted on October 5, 2018, and tested whether it dispelled self–other discrepancies regarding tolerance towards sexual minorities (i.e., pluralistic ignorance). The results showed that exposure to information about enactment increased future perceptions of support and understanding of sexual minorities. By contrast, private attitudes, perceptions of current social norms, and willingness to speak out did not change. Willingness to speak out was indirectly enhanced through increased perceptions of gaining future support. Furthermore, Tokyo residents overestimated other residents' negative attitudes towards sexual minorities. However, even when informed of the new ordinance, this self–other discrepancy in intolerance towards sexual minorities was not corrected. These findings suggest that institutional decisions can shape the perception of social norm change in the future beyond Western countries.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ordinance influences individuals' perceptions towards prospects of social circumstance but not the status quo: An experimental field study on sexual minorities issues in Japan

Miyajima

Nakawake

Meng

et al. 2023

Asian J of Social Psycho

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…3 We argue that the same should happen with political norms, because a growing body of literature has shown that dynamics related to other political and non-political norms are similar. First, just as with non-political norms, the perception that there is a norm against or for a given political preference can affect individuals' willingness to engage in the associated political behavioursuch as support for the radical right (Harteveld and Ivarsflaten 2018;Valentim 2021), authoritarian successor parties (Valentim 2022), xenophobic behaviour (Alvarez-Benjumea and Winter 2020), and discourse (Alvarez-Benjumea and Winter 2018), or views on abortion (Jung and Tavits 2021).…”

Section: Social Sanctions As a Mechanism Of Enforcing Democratic Normsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Enforcement of Political Norms

Alvarez-Benjumea,

Valentim

2024

Brit. J. Polit. Sci.

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Democracies generate norms prescribing what behaviours and preferences are deemed acceptable. But what keeps these political norms in place? We expect that they are enforced by observers who disapprove of norm-breaching behaviour and are willing to apply sanctions that make it socially costly. We test this expectation with a survey in Spain, where respondents were shown pictures of individuals with different political views. We focus on norms against radical-right preferences, one of the most established political norms. In line with our expectations, individuals disapprove of radical-right preferences more than other political preferences. This makes them more likely to socially sanction those preferences, which they do mainly in indirect ways that do not force interaction with the person breaching the norm. We provide evidence on the individual-level predictors of norm enforcement. Our findings highlight the micro-level mechanisms by which social influence affects the behaviour of democratic citizens.

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“…If an individual is treated with information suggesting that other members of the reference group deem a given behavior or preference more acceptable than they had previously thought, they can become more likely to engage in that behavior. In the realm of politics, this role is usually played by elections (Bursztyn, Egorov, and Fiorin, 2020) or referenda (Jung and Tavits, 2021). However, other forms of public behavior that also signal one's views-like political symbols-can have an analogous effect (Dinas, Martínez, and Valentim, 2022).…”

Section: Forthcoming In the Encyclopedia Of Political Sociology Edite...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Norms (Entry for the Encyclopedia of Political Sociology)

Valentim¹

2023

Preprint

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Social norms are informal rules of behavior that individuals follow because they think others also follow them, think they should be followed, and are willing to sanction those who deviate. They affect a number of outcomes of interest to political scientists, both at the citizen and at the elite level. Because they rest on the anticipation of sanctions, norms can bring about mismatches between the private and revealed preferences of individuals. Since norm change represents a coordination problem, even unpopular norms can persist for long. For them to change, individuals need to update their priors as to what others deem acceptable. In the realm of politics, such updates can be brought about by institutional signals, information shocks from elections, or elite rhetoric.

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Do referendum results change norm perceptions and personal opinions?

Cited by 9 publications

References 28 publications

Ordinance influences individuals' perceptions towards prospects of social circumstance but not the status quo: An experimental field study on sexual minorities issues in Japan

Ordinance influences individuals' perceptions towards prospects of social circumstance but not the status quo: An experimental field study on sexual minorities issues in Japan

The Enforcement of Political Norms

Norms (Entry for the Encyclopedia of Political Sociology)

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