The impact of social norms on intergroup attitudes and behaviors

偏见、种族主义和歧视是公民社会面临的一些最大挑战。自1964年《民权法案》以来，美国一直致力于打击和减少偏见和歧视。尽管进行了长达数十年的努力，但数据显示这些问题依然存在。尽管已经开发了许多干预措施，但得到严格科学证据支持的很少。在至少已经在该领域进行过一些评估的方法中，许多似乎无效，有些甚至适得其反。研究表明，大多数强制性的多元化培训计划没有达到预期的效果，也没有创造更具包容性的环境。这个项目关注的是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想要的行为，比如说自己的大多数同龄人都努力做到包容。描述性规范是一个很好的干预目标，因为它们相对容易受到影响，因为人们有一种自然的愿望，想要属于他们认同的社会群体，并被他们接受。这项研究开发并测试了一个理论模型，该模型表明，积极的描述性规范而不是消极的描述性规范对各种与多样性相关的目标具有有利的影响。七个实验检验了描述性规范对社会氛围的影响。两个实验旨在建立积极和消极的描述性规范对大学社会氛围中的态度和行为的影响。另外两个实验探索了被假设为增加或减少显著描述性规范的影响的调节因素。该项目最后进行了三项研究，旨在测试积极的描述性规范是否对群体间行为和其他结果具有强大的影响。其中一项研究的重点是开发和确定有计划的干预措施的效果。第二项研究评估了这种干预对学生整个学期的课堂行为的影响。结果衡量标准包括观察到的行为、边缘群体成员的自我报告、成绩和社交网络中的跨群体友谊。最后的实验在全国成人调查的背景下提供了描述性常模干预。该项目不是通过提及普遍存在的歧视来遏制人们最糟糕的自我，而是旨在展示通过传递关于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，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.