Written and Unwritten Rules: Injunctive Norms, Descriptive Norms, and Idiosyncrasy Credits

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Written and Unwritten Rules: Injunctive Norms, Descriptive Norms, and Idiosyncrasy Credits

Advanced Social Psychology · Chapter 9: Group Dynamics, Conformity, and ObedienceSection 9.3 · lesson 56 of 8510 min · free with a free account

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In this lesson

Two kinds of norm, one way to backfire, and how deviance gets earned.

  • Distinguish injunctive from descriptive norms
  • Explain focus theory and situational norm activation
  • Identify the boomerang effect and how to prevent it
  • Apply Hollander's idiosyncrasy credit model

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Transcript

Everything said in the video, section by section (1,317 words). Read along, or search it.

Group Dynamics, Conformity, and Obedience

Written and Unwritten Rules

Norms are the rules nobody announces, and everybody follows. This section splits them into two kinds, and the split is consequential. One kind says what you should do. The other says what people actually do. Confuse them in a public campaign and you can increase the problem. We will look at two field studies where exactly that happened. Then a second idea, about who is allowed to break the rules. Hollander's model of idiosyncrasy credits. It explains why a veteran can say what a newcomer cannot. And why leaders have to conform before they can change anything.

The Definition

Rules Nobody Announces

A social norm is a shared expectation about behavior. About how people ought to behave, or typically do behave, in a given situation. They specify what is permitted, required, or forbidden, and violation triggers sanctions. Ranging from mild disapproval up to formal punishment. But the important property is that norms operate largely implicitly. Most of the time people follow them without deliberation, awareness, or enforcement. Two literatures study them at different levels. Sociological accounts, from Parsons and Durkheim, work at the macro level. Maintaining social order, and coordinating collective behavior. Social psychology works at the micro level instead. How individuals internalize and respond to normative information in a situation.

Two Kinds

What People Should Do, and What They Do

Cialdini, Reno, and Kallgren distinguished two norm types in nineteen ninety. An injunctive norm specifies what ought to be done, what a group approves of. It carries moral or evaluative weight. And it motivates compliance through the desire to avoid social sanction. A descriptive norm specifies what is done. What most people typically do in a given situation. It carries informational weight instead of moral weight. It guides you toward correct behavior under uncertainty. Now the crucial part, which is about how they combine. When aligned, their effects are additive and mutually reinforcing. When they conflict, the consequences can be paradoxical.

Side by Side

The Two Norm Types Compared

Line the two norm types up dimension by dimension. The core question differs. Injunctive asks what people should do, in terms of approval. Descriptive asks what most people do, in terms of prevalence. The information differs too. Injunctive is moral or evaluative, communicating standards. Descriptive information is statistical, communicating typical behavior. The motivational basis differs too. Injunctive norms run on the desire for approval, and avoiding sanction. Descriptive norms run on the desire to behave correctly, reducing uncertainty. And then the row that matters most for practice. Injunctive norms carry a low risk of backfire. Descriptive norms carry a high one, if the norm reveals undesirable behavior.

Focus Theory

A Norm Only Works When It Is Focal

Cialdini, Reno, and Kallgren also gave us focus theory. Its claim is deceptively simple. Norms guide behavior only when they are focal. That is, rendered salient and psychologically active at the moment of action. A norm that is abstractly known but not activated exerts little pull. You can believe littering is wrong and litter anyway. Not through hypocrisy, but because the belief was not switched on. So which norm is made focal determines which behavior is produced. And here is the sharp implication. Injunctive and descriptive norms may both technically apply. They will still produce different outcomes, depending on which is activated. That relocates the causal question entirely.

The Littering Study

Same Act, Opposite Effects

The foundational study tested this with litter, and it is elegant. Confederates dropped a piece of litter in one of two environments. Either a clean environment, or a heavily littered one. In the clean setting, the littering violated a standard, making the injunctive norm focal. And participants littered less. In the already-littered environment, the same action read differently. It made the descriptive norm focal: people litter here. And participants littered more. Same behavior by the confederate. Opposite effects on participants. Which yields a rule for anyone designing a campaign. Describing how prevalent a problem is can activate a norm of deviance. And increase the very behavior the campaign aims to reduce.

The Boomerang

When Descriptive Norms Pull the Wrong Way

That failure mode has a name: the boomerang effect. Descriptive information reaches above-average performers, who relax toward the average. Schultz and colleagues demonstrated it in a field experiment in two thousand seven. California households received feedback on their energy use. Compared against neighborhood averages. Above-average users reduced consumption, exactly as intended. But below-average users increased theirs. That is the boomerang. The fix was elegant, and almost trivially cheap. They added an injunctive cue to the same report. A smiley face for below-average users, a frowning face for above-average ones. That eliminated the boomerang entirely. The number tells you where you sit. The face tells you how that is regarded.

Beyond Energy

The Same Failure, Four Domains

The boomerang has been documented well outside energy use. Every case has the same structure: publicizing prevalence creates an unintended norm. Alcohol interventions that publicize average student drinking. They can increase consumption among light drinkers. Anti-smoking campaigns emphasizing how many teens smoke. They can normalize the behavior for non-smokers. And publicizing high voter turnout can reduce later motivation. Among already-engaged citizens who feel their contribution is redundant. Done correctly, though, norm messaging works at national scale. The UK's Behavioral Insights Team applied it to tax compliance. Letters said most people in your area pay their taxes on time. On-time payment rose substantially against standard reminder letters. The norm activated was both descriptive and injunctive, which avoided the boomerang.

Petrified Forest

A Sign That Increased the Theft

The most striking demonstration was in a national park. Cialdini and colleagues, in two thousand six. The Arizona Petrified Forest National Park has a problem with visitors removing wood. Two versions of a warning sign were tested. The descriptive version said many past visitors had removed wood, changing the park. Which inadvertently communicated a high prevalence of theft. The injunctive version simply asked visitors not to remove the wood. Communicating disapproval, without implying prevalence. Marked pieces of wood were placed along the paths, and theft was measured. The descriptive sign increased theft, relative to a no-sign control. The injunctive sign reduced it. A warning, badly framed, can be worse than no warning at all.

Hollander, 1958

Earning the Right to Deviate

The second half of this section changes topic, and stays with norms. Someone always breaks them, and Edwin Hollander explained when that is fine. Group members accumulate idiosyncrasy credits. A metaphorical currency of social goodwill. Earned through demonstrated conformity, and competent contribution. Those credits can later be spent to deviate, without triggering sanctions. The model makes three predictions worth separating. First, timing matters. Early deviance is far more costly than later deviance. A new employee challenging conventions in week one is read differently. Differently from a ten-year veteran doing exactly the same thing. Second, both competence and conformity generate credits. A brilliant newcomer may bank credits faster through expertise than compliance. Third, credits are domain-specific, and only partially transfer.

The Ledger

Credits Across Member Types

Map that onto four kinds of group member. New or low-status members have a low balance, with credits unearned. Their permitted deviance is minimal, and deviating risks rejection. Established conformers have a moderate, accumulating balance. Minor deviations are tolerated from them. High-status, high-conformity veterans hold a large reserve. Their permitted deviance is substantial: a senior professor challenging consensus. And competent, trusted leaders hold the highest balance of all. Credits from performance, plus a history of conformity. They are not merely permitted to innovate. They are expected to. Which explains a paradox about effective leadership. Leaders both embody group norms and selectively violate them.

Consolidate

Where the Credit Logic Is Already Built In

Hollander's model makes a prediction about failed leaders. Those who attempt change without first establishing conformity-based credibility. They face resistance, backlash, and potential rejection. And institutions have already encoded that prediction. Tenure systems, probationary periods, progressive autonomy structures. All operationalize credit accumulation, granting latitude in proportion to contribution. The same logic appears in group therapy and support groups. Challenging a group's collective denial works better from a long-standing member. Better than from a newcomer, or a facilitator perceived as an outsider. And the norm work scaled too, through the Opower, now Oracle Utilities, program. Both halves of this section are about activation, not information. A norm changes behavior when it is focal, and a deviation is tolerated when it is banked.

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Advanced Social Psychology carries a NCCRS credit recommendation. These universities work with NCCRS; some are UPI Study's signed partners. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.

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FAQ

Questions students ask us

About Written and Unwritten Rules: Injunctive Norms, Descriptive Norms, and Idiosyncrasy Credits

What is the difference between injunctive and descriptive norms?
Injunctive norms describe what people ought to do, meaning what others approve or disapprove of, while descriptive norms describe what most people actually do. Robert Cialdini, Raymond Reno, and Carl Kallgren drew the distinction in 1990. Injunctive norms motivate through the wish for approval and to avoid sanctions; descriptive norms motivate by showing what is typical when people are unsure. Aligned, they reinforce each other; in conflict, they can backfire.
What is the boomerang effect in social norms messaging?
The boomerang effect happens when a descriptive norm message pulls people who are already doing well toward the average. In a 2007 field experiment by P. Wesley Schultz and colleagues, California households got feedback comparing their energy use with their neighbors'. High users cut back, but low users increased their use. Adding an injunctive cue, a smiley face for low users, eliminated the increase.
Why can a warning sign make a problem worse?
A warning sign can backfire when it stresses how common the bad behavior is, because that activates a descriptive norm that many people do it. At Arizona's Petrified Forest National Park, Cialdini and colleagues (2006) found a sign saying many past visitors had removed wood increased theft compared with no sign, while a sign simply asking visitors not to take wood reduced it. Effective messages show disapproval without implying prevalence.
What are idiosyncrasy credits?
Idiosyncrasy credits are a metaphorical store of goodwill that, in Edwin Hollander's model, group members earn by conforming and contributing competently, and can later spend to deviate from norms without being punished. Newcomers have few credits, so early deviance is costly, while trusted veterans and leaders can challenge norms more freely. The model explains why leaders usually need to show loyalty to a group before they can change it.

About the Advanced Social Psychology course

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Advanced Social Psychology (Psychology 310) carries a NCCRS credit recommendation for 3 semester credits. ACE and NCCRS have over 2,100 cooperating colleges that will consider accepting credits; the final decision is with the universities.
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$250, paid once, with lifetime access: all 85 video lessons, a practice quiz after each, the graded work and final exam, and an official transcript when you finish. Students who want several courses choose UPI Study PRO instead.
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