| Social Norms: An Underestimated and Underemployed Lever for Managing Climate Change |
| Post Date: |
September 11, 2019 |
| Resource Type: |
|
| Description: |
It is widely recognized that communications that make social norms salient can be effective in influencing behavior. What is surprising, given the strength of the evidence, is how little people are aware of the extent to which social norms affect their own behavior. Consequently, this low-cost persuasion strategy is considerably underutilized to promote behaviors to help reduce climate change. In this paper we review recent field experiments that harness the power of social norms to influence pro-environmental behavior. We also elucidate the circumstances under which providing normative information is optimal, as well as circumstances under which such information can backfire to produce the opposite of what a communicator intends.
|
| Author: |
Vladas Griskevicius, University of Minnesota, et al. |
| Topic: |
|
| Audience: |
|
| Length in pages or time: |
9 pp. |
| Fee?: |
0 |
| Library Loan?: |
|
| Is Training required?: |
|
| Seasonal?: |
|
| Language other than English: |
|
| Order information or contact: |
Vladas Griskevicius, PhD.
University of Minnesota, Carlson School of Management
Associate Professor
Marketing
612-626-3793
vladasg@umn.edu |
| Link: |
http://195.37.26.249/ijsc/docs/artikel/03/3_03_IJSC_Research_Griskevicius.pdf |
| MAEE Partner |
Sharing Environmental Education Knowledge (SEEK)
|
Social Norms: An Underestimated and Underemployed Lever for Managing Climate Change
Posted: September 11, 2019 by MAEE Administration
Category: Sharing Environmental Education Knowledge (SEEK)
It is widely recognized that communications that make social norms salient can be effective in influencing behavior. What is surprising, given the strength of the evidence, is how little people are aware of the extent to which social norms affect their own behavior. Consequently, this low-cost persuasion strategy is considerably underutilized to promote behaviors to help reduce climate change. In this paper we review recent field experiments that harness the power of social norms to influence pro-environmental behavior. We also elucidate the circumstances under which providing normative information is optimal, as well as circumstances under which such information can backfire to produce the opposite of what a communicator intends.