Social norms and expectancy violation theories: assessing the effectiveness of health communication campaigns

Abstract

College students' processing of alcohol, smoking, and exercise social norms messages, and related effects on judgments, attitudes toward one's own behaviors, and attitudes toward undergraduates' behaviors were examined using social norms marketing and Expectancy Violation Theory (EVT) (N=393). Receiving statistical social norms messages led to an expectancy violation of the perceived social norm (i.e., a discrepancy between the expected and actual statistic conveyed with a message). Consistent with Boster et al. (2000), the effect of the message discrepancy on attitudes was mediated by judgments. In accordance with social norms, when participants were provided with a statistic, the majority moved their judgments (but not their attitudes) toward the provided statistic, a result only consistent with EVT in the case of positive violations. The results have multiple implications: (1) social norms messages may work to change judgments, but do not result in consistent attitude change; (2) the process of judgment change functions similarly across message topics, as well as message types (i.e., attitudinal versus behavioral); (3) judgment change does not appear to be the main cause for attitude change upon receipt of a social norms message; and (4) a message‐based expectancy violation does not function in the same way as a violated behavioral expectation.

Keywords:

• Social Norms
• Expectancy Violation
• Health Communication

Notes

Shelly Campo is Assistant Professor, Department of Community and Behavioral Health and Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa. Kenzie A. Cameron is Research Assistant Professor, Program in Communication & Medicine, Northwestern University. Dominique Brossard is Assistant Professor, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin–Madison. M. Somjen Frazer is Graduate Student, Department of Sociology, Oxford University. The first two authors contributed equally to this paper. This research was supported in part by the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station federal formula funds, Project NYC‐131401 received from Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, US Department of Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the US Department of Agriculture. Portions of this research were conducted when the second author was at the University of Georgia. The authors wish to thank Baseema Banoo, Deanna Caputo, Sarah Doherty, Erin Payne and Tommy Wood for their assistance. A version of this manuscript was presented at the annual American Public Health Association Conference, Philadelphia, PA, November 2002. Correspondence to: Shelly Campo, Department of Community and Behavioral Health and Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa, College of Public Health, 200 Hawkins Drive, E237 GH, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. Tel: 319‐384‐5393; Email: shelly‐[email protected]

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Shelly Campo

Shelly Campo is Assistant Professor, Department of Community and Behavioral Health and Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa. Kenzie A. Cameron is Research Assistant Professor, Program in Communication & Medicine, Northwestern University. Dominique Brossard is Assistant Professor, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin–Madison. M. Somjen Frazer is Graduate Student, Department of Sociology, Oxford University. The first two authors contributed equally to this paper. This research was supported in part by the Cornell University Agricultural Experiment Station federal formula funds, Project NYC‐131401 received from Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service, US Department of Agriculture. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the view of the US Department of Agriculture. Portions of this research were conducted when the second author was at the University of Georgia. The authors wish to thank Baseema Banoo, Deanna Caputo, Sarah Doherty, Erin Payne and Tommy Wood for their assistance. A version of this manuscript was presented at the annual American Public Health Association Conference, Philadelphia, PA, November 2002. Correspondence to: Shelly Campo, Department of Community and Behavioral Health and Department of Communication Studies, University of Iowa, College of Public Health, 200 Hawkins Drive, E237 GH, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. Tel: 319‐384‐5393; Email: shelly‐[email protected]