Managing social norms for persuasive impact
Robert Cialdini and colleagues start from the point that public service communicators often include normative information in persuasive appeals, and that such messages can be effective or ineffective because they can normalise either desirable or undesirable conduct. Visitors to Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park were shown messages against the theft of petrified wood that conveyed either descriptive norms, how others behave, or injunctive norms, how others disapprove. Focusing visitors on descriptive information was most likely to increase theft, whereas focusing them on injunctive information was most likely to suppress it, and the paper closes with recommendations for using normative messages where undesirable conduct is common.
Robert Cialdini and colleagues start from the point that public service communicators often include normative information in persuasive appeals, and that such messages can be effective or ineffective because they can normalise either desirable or undesirable conduct. Visitors to Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park were shown messages against the theft of petrified wood that conveyed either descriptive norms, how others behave, or injunctive norms, how others disapprove. Focusing visitors on descriptive information was most likely to increase theft, whereas focusing them on injunctive information was most likely to suppress it, and the paper closes with recommendations for using normative messages where undesirable conduct is common.
Written from the abstract as shown on the OpenAlex record, read 2026-10-28.
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Cialdini, R. B., Demaine, L. J., Sagarin, B. J., Barrett, D. W., Rhoads, K., & Winter, P. L. (2006). Managing social norms for persuasive impact. Social Influence, 1(1), 3-15. doi:10.1080/15534510500181459 https://doi.org/10.1080/15534510500181459