Media and Social Norms: Exploring the Relationship between Media and Plastic Avoidance Social Norms

ABSTRACT

Compared to the influence of social norms on pro-environmental behavior, we know much less about the processes that influence perceptions about social norms. This study explores the relationship between media exposure and social norms in the context of single-use plastic avoidance. Structural equation modeling was used to determine how exposure to news, documentaries, and social media were related to key constructs from the theory of normative social behavior – including perceived descriptive and injunctive norms and outcome expectations related to perceived self- and environmental benefits of avoidance. News exposure was positively related to injunctive norms. Social media exposure was negatively related to descriptive and injunctive norms and positively related to perceived benefits. Documentary exposure was positively related to descriptive norms and perceived benefits. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Mass media
• social media
• social norms
• theory of normative social behavior
• single-use plastic

Acknowledgements

I would like to acknowledge the survey participants for their time and insights, the data collection agency, Dynata, and Dr Lucy Busija for advising on the statistical analysis. I would also like to thank Professor Jo Lindsay and Dr Jim Curtis for their invaluable support and guidance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data can be made available upon request to the author.

Notes

1 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6769208.

2 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7450130.

3 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt5203824.

4 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9030688.

5 https://www.facebook.com/oceanmagazin/posts/2487067594650441.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Victorian Department of Environment, Land, Water, and Planning, and Sustainability Victoria.