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Social Norms

This page aims to broadly describe social norms theory; the diagnostic tools that are used to identify the presence of a social norm and the methods that are used in a social norms approach to attitude and behaviour change.

What is a social norm?

A social norm is said to be an unwritten rule that tell us how to behave, like a  grammar of social interactions. A social norm is the expected standard of behaviour that most of us will conform to, most of the time. It is one of the reasons for behavioural regularities.

Typology of Reasons for Behavioural Regularities (Mackie, Moneti, Denny, & Shakya, 2012)

The Diagnostic Tree

Social norms have particular characteristics that enable them to be distinguished from other behavioural regularities, for example:

• a social norm operates within a specific reference network, the rule is maintained by the reciprocal expectations of reference network members
• we follow the rule because we believe other people (in our reference network) follow the rule – the presence of a social norm is, therefore, associated with an empirical expectation
• we also follow the rule because we believe other people (in our reference network) think we should follow the rule - the presence of a social norm is also associated a normative expectation.

A diagnostic tree is used to identify the presence of a social norm:

The Social Norms Approach

The Social Norms Approach (SNA) is a primary prevention technique that has been demonstrated in a range of public health contexts, around the world. Pioneering psychologist, Alan Berkowitz, says the SNA is part of a larger paradigm shift towards positive, strengths based, prevention strategies, instead of only emphasizing the negative, as we have tended to do in the past.

Social norms terminologies and definitions (Berkowitz, 2012)

The SNA has evolved, from social science research which shows that people tend to over-estimate the frequency of negative norms, amongst their peers, and under-estimate the positive. For example, people tend to assume that others drink more alcohol, smoke more cigarettes or take more drugs than they actually do. In other words, within any given group, the perceived norm is usually an over- or under-estimation of the actual norm. In SNA terminology, the perceived norm, is a misperception of the actual norm.

The SNA distinguishes between the perceived norm and the actual norm

Recommended Reading

• Berkowitz, A. (2012). A grassroots' guide to fostering healthy norms to reduce violence in our communities: social norms toolkit. Retrieved from Mount Shasta, CA: http://www.alanberkowitz.com/Social_Norms_Violence_Prevention_Toolkit.pdf
• Mackie, G., Moneti, F., Denny, E., & Shakya, H. (2012). What are Social Norms? How are they Measured? - Working Paper. Retrieved from San Diego, USA: