To Norm or Not To Norm…
That is the question — to which we usually answer YES, if the norm is favorable. This small study suggests that we might need further research. Title The Role of Social Norms in Personalized Alcohol Feedback: A Dismantling Study With Emerging Adults Author Jacqueline Alfonso Abstract This study compared two Web-based alcohol programs in a sample […]
A Study of Bullying, Perceived Norms & Bystander Behavior
As in other studies of “bystander behavior,” this study found that children were more likely to intervene to stop bullying if they perceived that FEWER peers would do so. As usual, the title links to the article. Title Relations Between Actual Group Norms, Perceived Peer Behavior, and Bystander Children’s Intervention to Bullying Authors Lydia R. […]
Ninth Annual National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media
Early Bird Registration Deadline extended to Friday, July 10, 2015 Ninth Annual National Conference on Health Communication, Marketing, and Media August 11 – 13, 2015 Hyatt Regency Atlanta, GA Sponsored by: The National Public Health Information Coalition To learn more about registration for this year’s conference, click here. To make hotel reservations, click here. […]
WSJ article: How to Cut Student Drinking
A recent article in WSJ (yes, WSJ not an SSJ) includes using electronic media to share noms about drinking as a technique to reduce student drinking. Click here to read the article.
The Importance of the 10%
Never can tell what you will learn on the internet. I just found an article about modeling research published in 2011 by social scientists at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. The research demonstrates “…that when just 10 percent of the population holds an unshakable belief, their belief will always be adopted by the majority of the society.” According to […]
“Nudging” Behavior Change Using Non-normative Statistics
I just read a fascinating study, thanks to my Google Alert for “social norms”. We are often faced with the dilemma of the behavior that we want to promote is NOT normative and so does not seem appropriate for a social norms campaign, even if there is a large misperception. Let’s take a hypothetical example. Suppose […]
Positive Deviance
Who does well in groups where unhealthy behaviors are the norm? One frequent concern about the social norms approach is, “what if the majority of a population engages in the unhealthy behavior?” In social norms marketing, we believe that there’s always a positive norm that can be highlighted: for example, even if the majority of […]
Epidemiology of College Health
This publication, authored by James Turner and Adrienne Keller of the National Social Norms Institute, summarizes 3 1/2 years of data from the student health services of universities participating in the College Health Surveillance Network. This is the first article in the college health literature to be based on epidemiology and service utilization data from multiple institutions […]
Substance Use Screening Tools Database
Do you want to learn more about the population you work with? Many college health professionals want to better understand the attitudes and behaviors of the students they work with, so they can design effective interventions and social marketing campaigns. There are a huge number of existing questionnaires that are designed to measure all kinds […]
“Positive” Or “Negative” Advertising?
We were recently challenged to address a seemingly simple question. However, as with most questions worth asking, the seeming simplicity is deceptive. Here’s the question and how we addressed it. Is “positive” advertising better than “negative” advertising? To answer this question, we have to consider a number of variables, including domain, audience, focus and purpose. Domain: […]