Social Norms Intervention

Words: 1643
Pages: 7

Social Norms Intervention

The fundamental purpose of each social norm is to bring harmony and coordinate persons'

anticipations, in order to achieve multiple equilibria. In simple words, norms force uniformity of

behaviour in a specific social group (Blume & Durlauf, 2008). Social norms theory -the notion

that people's behaviour is often shaped by false misconceptions regarding how others think and

behave in a given social context- offer a model in order to understand human behavior, that has

been shown to be effective in regards to health prevention and promotion (Berkowitz, n.d.). In

this paper, based on psychological theory as well as empirical research, an exploration is

attempted on whether and how ''social norms marketing''
…show more content…
Additionally the intervention seems to be also effective in high and

middle school populations (Berkowitz, n.d.). Social norms marketing focuses on three different categories of intervention, which were

first developed by the Medicine Institute. The names of those categories are: universal, selective

and indicated. More specifically, universal prevention is addressed to the entire population,

without being exclusive to those in danger of abuse. Selective prevention is aimed at the

members of a group that are in danger of exhibiting a particular behaviour. Conclusively the

indicated prevention is designed to target at those specific individuals who have exhibited

indications that they already have ''problematic'' behaviours (Berkowitz, n.d.).

Social Norms Interventions

Although initially a social norms marketing campaign may seem simple, an objectively

succesful intervention needs accurate planning and appropriate implementation. In the beginning

of a social norms marketing operation the first thing that needs to be done is to