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Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 34, No. 7, 913-923 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0146167208316691

Normative Social Influence is Underdetected

Jessica M. Nolan

University of Arkansas, jmn03{at}uark.edu

P. Wesley Schultz

California State University, San Marcos

Robert B. Cialdini

Arizona State University

Noah J. Goldstein

University of Chicago

Vladas Griskevicius

University of Minnesota

The present research investigated the persuasive impact and detectability of normative social influence. The first study surveyed 810 Californians about energy conservation and found that descriptive normative beliefs were more predictive of behavior than were other relevant beliefs, even though respondents rated such norms as least important in their conservation decisions. Study 2, a field experiment, showed that normative social influence produced the greatest change in behavior compared to information highlighting other reasons to conserve, even though respondents rated the normative information as least motivating. Results show that normative messages can be a powerful lever of persuasion but that their influence is underdetected.

Key Words: social norms • social influence • pro-environmental behavior • social inference


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