Norms, Threat Appeals, and Collective Actions
Year: 2011
Type: preprint
Abstract: Do communications that evoke perceptions of a threat affect individuals’ willingness to participate in collective actions? Can invoking social norms moderate the impact of these types of appeals? This paper develops a framework which suggests that engaging in a collective action requires (1) a direct motivation (e.g., from an appeal), and (2) perceptions that the behavior is efficacious, insofar as others are perceived as doing it too, because if they are not then one person will not make a difference. I test predictions from this framework in an experiment that focuses on a particularly important behavior – actions regarding the consumption of energy. I find that invoking a pro-conservation norm in the context of an appeal for action significantly increases the importance associated with energy conservation, willingness to talk with others about ways to reduce consumption, and actual behavior regarding whether or not to make a donation to a non-profit conservation organization.
Source: SSRN Electronic Journal
Author: Toby Bolsen
Institution: Georgia State University
Language: English
Subfield: Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
Field: Environmental Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1597398766