Morality and Prosocial Behavior: the Role of Awareness, Responsibility and Norms in the Norm Activation Model

This paper examines the relationships between variables included in the Norm Activation Model of prosocial behaviour (NAM). Specifically, we evaluate the strength of two commonly used interpretations of this model, namely the NAM as a mediator model and the NAM as a moderator model. Five studies focussing on a variety of prosocial intentions and behaviours provide most support for the NAM as a mediator model. Furthermore, these studies validate past research by showing that variables included in the NAM are powerful in explaining a diversity of prosocial intentions and behaviours in the social as well as in the environmental context

Thou shalt not steal: Effects of normative cues on attitudes towards theft.

In this study, we examine how normative cues influence attitudes towards theft. In a 3 × 2 × 2 within-subjects design (N = 120), we found that people had more negative attitudes towards theft when: 1) a higher value item was stolen than when a lower value item was stolen; 2) the theft took place in a public setting than when it took place in a private setting; and 3) the theft took place in a tidy rather than messy setting. Furthermore, our findings showed interaction effects between the value of a stolen item and 1) the cleanliness of the environment; and 2) the privateness of a setting, on attitudes towards theft. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed

Persuasive Normative Messages: The Influence of Injunctive and Personal Norms on Using Free Plastic Bags

In this exploratory field-study, we examined how normative messages (i.e., activating an injunctive norm, personal norm, or both) could encourage shoppers to use fewer free plastic bags for their shopping in addition to the supermarket’s standard environmental message aimed at reducing plastic bags. In a one-way subjects-design (N = 200) at a local supermarket, we showed that shoppers used significantly fewer free plastic bags in the injunctive, personal and combined normative message condition than in the condition where only an environmental message was present. The combined normative message did result in the smallest uptake of free plastic bags compared to the injunctive and personal normative-only message, although these differences were not significant. Our findings imply that re-wording the supermarket’s environmental message by including normative information could be a promising way to reduce the use of free plastic bags, which will ultimately benefit the environmen

Persuasive technology to promote pro-environmental behaviour

This chapter discusses the dimensions and scope of persuasive technology and its potential to promote sustainable use of the environment surrounding us. Persuasive technology aims to bridge the gap between technological and psychological contributions to solving environmental problems by intervening in user-system interactions that have environmental consequences. Various approaches to persuasive technology will be introduced including the use of persuasive agents, the provision of new experiences, the use of persuasive ambient technology, and persuasive technology at the group level that acknowledges the social nature of environmental behaviour. A crucial advantage of ambient persuasive technology is that it can continue influencing people, even in daily situations in which cognitive resources are taxed and where interventions that need cognitive attention would not be influential. The use of ambient intelligence decreases the use of cognitive resources which helps to ease behaviour change