Intervening or interfering? The influence of injunctive and descriptive norms on intervention behaviours in alcohol consumption contexts

Abstract

In situations when people have been drinking, they often find it difficult to tell their friends to stop drinking, or not to drive home. Most people want to avoid being seen as a busybody, which may inhibit advice giving. In the current study, we investigated how positive and negative descriptive and injunctive norms (in alcohol consumption contexts) affect people's motivation to engage in intervening (e.g., ask a friend to stop drinking) and non-intervening (e.g., let friends make their own drinking decisions) behaviours. An online experiment with a four weeks post-test was conducted. Results showed that positive social norms resulted in a higher motivation to engage in intervening behaviour and a lower motivation to engage in non-intervening behaviour, compared to negative social norms. Injunctive, but not descriptive, norms had an effect on intervening behaviour four weeks after the manipulations. In line with prior findings, we also found that injunctive norms, in comparison to descriptive norms, are less amenable to change but that their influence is more enduring. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

Personal and Perceived Peer Use of and Attitudes Toward Alcohol Among University and College Students in Seven EU Countries: Project SNIPE

“…In addition and as noted elsewhere, social norms feedback based on injunctive norms can be useful in situations where the actual descriptive norm is of a harmful level or not suitable for dissemination among the target population (Mollen et al, 2013). For instance, if the reported norm of the number of alcoholic drinks consumed on a night out or when partying is high, then an injunctive norms message that the majority of people will ensure that their friends do not travel home alone could be used as part of a harm-reduction campaign.…”

When group members go against the grain: An ironic interactive effect of group identification and normative content on healthy eating

“…When presented with an unhealthy social norm, however, they ate more and chose more caloric foods. The latter phenomenon has been described as a boomerang effect, typically in the context of energy conservation: low energy users, when told that the majority of people use much more energy than they do, tend to increase their energy use (Fischer, 2008;Mollen, Rimal, Ruiter, Jang, & Kok, 2013;Nolan, Schultz, Cialdini, Goldstein, & Griskevicius, 2008). The boomerang effect has been identified as one of the reasons why norm-based interventions sometimes have a null effect on behaviour (Fischer, 2008) and is a good illustration of the complex nature of normative influences on behaviour.…”

Perceived social norms of health behaviours and college engagement in British students

“…This may be because they are seen by the individual to represent the beliefs of the group to which they belong, whereas descriptive norms are more prone to situational effects such as availability of the substance (Jacobson et al 2011). As noted elsewhere injunctive norms can be used as the basis for a social norms campaign when the descriptive norm is unhealthy or unsuitable (Mollen et al 2013). Despite the fact that in the current study the vast majority of students reported never using drugs it may be that parents and stakeholders would object to a campaign which acknowledged that even a small amount of drug using was taking place, particularly given that many of the students are minors.…”