Effects of Normative Social Influence Policies on Environmental Conservation and Sustainability

Week 7 Response
Name Course Instructor Date
The research looks into whether social norms and normative appeals influence environmental conservation efforts and behavior where there is the communication of norms.
Social influence affects behavior, but it is not clear whether this occurs consciously or unconsciously. Normative social influence is apparent in the study when there was increased towel reuse.
Descriptive norms such as most guests reuse their towels, are informative, and there was increased towel reuse than when using traditional appeals with messaging on conservation.
Normative information helps influence responses, effective or adaptive behavior since it is expected that other people behave in certain ways in social environments (Goldstein, Cialdini & Griskevicius, 2008). The use of normative information is more effective when the messaging matches the situation of the intended audience.
Messaging about conservation programs should include a descriptive normative component, especially when there is a persuasive goal, and people are likely to comply with norms. Communicati...