About Social Norms

This is a brief overview of the main points of social norms theory and applications for those who are new to the topic. For more detailed information see the 'Publications' section

● What are social norms?

Social norms refer to our perceptions of what is 'normal' behaviour in the people around us. It has long been established that these beliefs are very influential on our own behaviour - so for example how much alcohol a person drinks will be strongly determined by how heavily they think their friends drink. There are several factors which can effect how much the perceived group norm influences the individual, including how much contact they with the group and how similar the individual thinks they are to them.

● What are normative misperceptions?

One of the most important research findings in the social norms field is the fact that people's beliefs about others appear to be very inaccurate. This was first noted with regards to alcohol consumption in college students, in that students significantly overestimated how heavily their peers drank alcohol. Since this early research these misperceptions about alcohol have been documented on numerous American college campuses. For example, several studies have noted that male college students appear to believe their fellow student to binge drink three times more frequently than they actually do. Similar work  has also suggested that students tend to overestimate how often their peers smoke, take drugs and engage in unsafe sex. 

● What is a social norms intervention?

Social norms interventions are based on the simple idea that if individuals overestimate how common a behaviour is then correcting this misperception should reduce the pressure on the individual to engage in that behaviour. For example, if high school students think that the majority of their fellow pupils are drinking alcohol regularly and heavily - when in fact only a minority do so - then presenting this information in a credible way to the student body will correct their misperceptions and result in a reduction of their own alcohol consumption. In other words, a social norms intervention uses peer pressure to achieve a positive result by praising the healthy majority.

● How do social norms interventions differ from traditional approaches?

Traditional approaches to health education are often based on what could be called 'health terrorism', where adverts are shown which depict very negative consequences of alcohol and drug use. Research suggests that although these adverts may be popular and memorable they are ineffective at actually changing behaviour. An example of this approach can be seen in the television adverts for the Alcohol: Know Your Limits campaign currently being shown in the UK -

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● Do social norms interventions work?

Social norms interventions have become extremely popular in the American educational system, being named 'Idea of the Year' by New York Times Magazine in 2001. Part of the reason for this is the fact that they appear to have been successful in reducing rates of unhealthy behaviour on the school and college campuses on which they have been applied. They have also come at a time when there is increasing scepticism about the more traditional forms of health education, sometimes referred to as 'health terrorism', which attempt to change behaviour by stressing the potential health or social dangers. Although these approaches are widely used there is little conclusive evidence that they are effective in the long term. This is not to say that social norms approaches are free of criticism themselves, however the apparent success of them in comparison to traditional forms of alcohol consumption certainly merits further investigation.

● Can social norms interventions be used with other behaviours and groups?

The social norms research field originated in the American college system and initially primarily focused on alcohol consumption and other forms of substance use. However research is increasingly being conducted on other behaviours and recent research has included work on sexual health, exercise, gambling, tax evasion and recycling. Similarly most of the social norms interventions to date have been conducted in secondary schools or colleges, although there is work which has trialled the use of social norms interventions in the community. The move into groups other than students is perhaps one of the next major challenges of social norms research.

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