The impact of social norms on intergroup attitudes and behaviors

社会规范对群体间态度和行为的影响

• 批准号: 2017045
• 负责人: Markus Brauer
• 金额: $ 50.5万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-08-01 至 2024-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2017045&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: impact; social; norms; intergroup; attitudes

Prejudice, racism, and discrimination represent some of the greatest challenges to a civil society. Ever since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, great efforts have been devoted to combatting and reducing prejudice and discrimination in the United States. Despite the decades-long effort, data show the persistence of these problems. Although many interventions have been developed, very few are supported by rigorous scientific evidence. Among the methods that have undergone at least some evaluation in the field, many appear to be ineffective and some even backfire. Research shows that most mandatory diversity training programs do not have the intended effect and do not create more inclusive environments. This project focuses on a different approach to promoting inclusive behaviors. It relies on the influence of positive descriptive norms. Descriptive norms are one’s perceptions about the beliefs and behaviors of most people. Positive descriptive norm messages communicate the desirable actions of others, such as stating that most of one’s peers strive to be inclusive. Descriptive norms are a good target for interventions because they are relatively easy to influence and because people have a natural desire to belong and be accepted by the social groups with which they identify. The research develops and tests a theoretical model suggesting that positive, but not negative, descriptive norms have beneficial effects for a variety of diversity-related goals.Seven experiments examine the influence of descriptive norms on social climate. Two experiments aim to establish the impact of positive and negative descriptive norms on attitudes and behavior in the context of a university social climate. Two more experiments explore moderators that are hypothesized to increase or decrease the effects of salient descriptive norms. The project concludes with three studies designed to test whether positive descriptive norms have powerful effects on intergroup behavior and other consequential outcomes. One study focuses on developing and establishing the effects of a designed intervention. A second study evaluates the impact of that intervention on students’ classroom behaviors over the course of an entire school term. Outcome measures include observed behaviors, self-reports from members of marginalized groups, grades, and cross-group friendships in social networks. The final experiment delivers a descriptive norm intervention in the context of a national survey of adults. Rather than curbing people's worst possible selves through references to widespread discrimination, this project aims to demonstrate the value of helping people realize their best possible selves through messaging about positive social norms.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

偏见、种族主义和歧视是公民社会面临的最大挑战之一。 自1964年民权法案颁布以来，美国一直致力于打击和减少偏见和歧视。 尽管进行了数十年的努力，但数据显示这些问题仍然存在。 虽然已经制定了许多干预措施，但很少有严格的科学证据支持。 在该领域至少进行了一些评估的方法中，许多似乎是无效的，有些甚至适得其反。 研究表明，大多数强制性多样性培训方案没有达到预期效果，也没有创造更具包容性的环境。 该项目侧重于促进包容性行为的不同方法。 它依赖于积极的描述性规范的影响。 描述性规范是一个人对大多数人的信仰和行为的看法。 积极的描述性规范信息传达了其他人的可取行动，例如声明大多数同龄人都努力做到包容。 描述性规范是干预的一个很好的目标，因为它们相对容易受到影响，因为人们有一种自然的愿望，即属于他们所认同的社会群体并被其接受。 该研究开发和测试的理论模型表明，积极的，而不是消极的，描述性规范有各种多样性相关的goals.Seven实验研究描述性规范对社会气候的影响有益的影响。 两个实验的目的是建立积极和消极的描述性规范的态度和行为的背景下，大学的社会气候的影响。 另外两个实验探讨了假设增加或减少显著描述性规范的影响的主持人。 该项目的结论是三项研究，旨在测试是否积极的描述性规范有强大的影响组间行为和其他相应的结果。一项研究侧重于开发和建立设计干预的效果。 第二项研究评估了这种干预对学生整个学期课堂行为的影响。 结果测量包括观察到的行为，来自边缘化群体成员的自我报告，成绩和社交网络中的跨群体友谊。最后一个实验提供了一个描述性的规范干预的背景下，一个全国性的成年人调查。该项目不是通过提及广泛的歧视来抑制人们最糟糕的自我，而是旨在展示通过传达积极社会规范的信息来帮助人们实现最好的自我的价值。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并且通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Stuck on Intergroup Attitudes: The Need to Shift Gears to Change Intergroup Behaviors

• DOI: 10.1177/17456916231185775
• 发表时间: 2023-07-24
• 期刊: PERSPECTIVES ON PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
• 影响因子: 12.6
• 作者: Brauer，Markus