Social Behavior And Environment: The Influence Of Social Norms

Transcription

Special SectionPapeles del Psicólogo / Psychologist Papers, 2019 Vol. 40(3), pp. ologistpapers.comSOCIAL BEHAVIOR AND ENVIRONMENT:THE INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL NORMS ON ENVIRONMENTAL BEHAVIORVerónica Sevillano1 and Pablo Olivos2Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. 2Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha1En los últimos años el uso de información normativa –normas sociales para la promoción de la conducta proambiental harecibido una atención notable, mostrando un gran potencial para la intervención psicosocial. Este artículo pretende transferiry hacer accesible los principales resultados de los estudios sobre información normativa para incentivar el desarrollo deprogramas de intervención de carácter medioambiental. Se revisan los conceptos de normas sociales descriptivas yprescriptivas, así como las principales recomendaciones para que su uso en aplicaciones prácticas sea efectivo. Se atiendetambién a factores que afectan la efectividad de las normas sociales en la promoción de la conducta proambiental: uso deretroalimentación conductual, carácter dinámico de la norma e implicación personal. Las normas sociales suponen unaimportante aportación de la psicología ambiental para la intervención en la problemática ambiental.Palabras clave: Normas sociales, Conducta proambiental, Psicología ambiental, intervención psicosocial, Política social.In recent years, the use of normative information—social norms—for promoting pro-environmental behavior has receivedremarkable attention, showing great potential for psychosocial interventions. This paper makes research on normativeinformation accessible with the aim of translating it into pro-environmental programs and public policy. The concepts ofdescriptive and prescriptive social norms are reviewed, as well as the main recommendations for their effective use in appliedcontexts. A number of factors found relevant for effective normative interventions on pro-environmental behavior are discussed:the use of behavioral feedback, the dynamic character of the norms, and personal involvement. Social norms represent animportant contribution from environmental psychology to the intervention on environmental problems.Key words: Social norms, Pro-environmental behavior, Environmental psychology, Psychosocial intervention, Social policy.ocial intervention programs for the promotion of proenvironmental behaviors (e.g., reduction of water andenergy consumption, increased recycling of paper,packaging, or mobile devices) are carried out from public andprivate entities, addressed to both the institution’s own personneland to the group of citizens of a specific population, and theirscope of application can be both local and global. Similar to theability of social psychology to base programs on classicalbehaviors of social intervention (e.g., promotion of healthyhabits, reduction of prejudice, and discrimination),environmental psychology has a broad theoretical backgroundfor developing social intervention programs applied to theenvironment (see the various articles in this monograph).This article describes the resources that environmentalpsychology has to promote pro-environmental behaviors basedon social norms theory. This theoretical area has been of greatrelevance in the research in the last decade, showing greatpotential for intervention (Demarque & Lima, 2017; Farrow,Grolleau, & Ibanez, 2017; Miller & Prentice, 2016). The mainSReceived: 31 January 2019 - Accepted: 28 February 2019Correspondence: Verónica Sevillano. Departamento de Psicología Social y Metodología. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.28049 Madrid. España. E-mail: veronica.sevillano@uam.es182objective of the article is to transfer and make accessible part ofthe research carried out in environmental psychology, showingits potential and effectiveness for developing interventionprograms aimed at the environment.THE IMPORTANCE OF THE BEHAVIOR OF OTHERS INENVIRO

The social influence of the behavior of others can be studied based on theoretical approaches such as social norms, social learning, social comparison, leadership, and public commitment (Abrahamse & Steg, 2013; Cinner, 2018). As mentioned, this article will focus on the first of these approaches. Social norms refer to people's beliefs about .