The Role of Group Orientation and Descriptive Norms on Water Conservation Attitudes and Behaviors

Abstract

Social norms have been shown to impact behaviors, but with mixed results. The theory of normative social behavior delineates factors that moderate the relationship between descriptive norms and behaviors, and it addresses the attributes of behaviors that make them susceptible to normative influence. This study tests whether group orientation moderates the impact of descriptive norms on water conservation attitudes and behavioral intentions. Findings indicate a consistent pattern of interactions for descriptive norms and group orientation on both attitudes and behavioral intent. Implications for normative theory and campaign design are addressed.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Preliminary results from this study were presented at the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, Seoul, Korea, July, 2002.

Notes

¹Because of the small number of participants from each country, the country of origin data were collapsed into 4 categories for subsequent regression analyses. The authors acknowledge that it is not preferred to collapse across countries because it may mask country-by-country variation. We deemed this acceptable because the variable of interest in this study was within-country variation in group orientation and the country variable was included as a control in the regression analyses. The categories were United States (which included people who reported they were born in the United States.), Malaysia/Singapore (which included participants born in both places), China (including Hong Kong and Taiwan), and Africa (which included people from Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Ghana).

²Preliminary analyses revealed no significant country-by-prevalence interaction, thus this interaction term was not included in these analyses for ease of presentation.