Ch. 4: Social Psychology: Under the influence of
others

Social Psychology: the scientific study of social influence which refers to
the impact of other people on one’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors
NORMS
 Norm: is a rule for expected behavior. Norms guide individual actions bys
suggesting what is normal, expected, or correct
o ie: if friends sign ESA petition, that provides a norm and increases
the likelihood that you will also sign
 Social Norms
o Social norms: refer to the behavior of others
 one type: descriptive norms: which are beliefs about what
other people do in a particular situation
 ie: drivers approaching their cars from garage elevator
experienced one of two conditions: either garage was
littered with handbills, or the garage did with the
handbill
 drivers were more likely to throw their handbill on the
ground in the already littered garage
o Energy consumption can be increased/decreased by descriptive
norms depending on whether the norm is above or below ones
current energy use
 when researchers communicate average neighborhood energy
use in one community, people who had been above the norm
used less energy, while those who learned hey were below
the norm subsequently use more
o injunctive norms: beliefs about social approval or disapproval for
particular behaviors
 ie: in Deborah’s rural community—she sees many home
vegetable gardens (a descriptive norm) and the Country Fair
gives prizes for the best produce, which communicated
publicly that vegetable growing is valued by others (an
injunctive norm)
o People believe they act because of common sense, or their logical
decisions, rather than because of social pressure to conform to
other’s behavior. Social psychologists call this error the
introspection illusions
 result’s of one study intentions to conserve energy
correlated more highly with beliefs about how often neighbors
conserve than the desire to save money, save the
environment, or benefit society in general—and yet people


reported that their neighbors behavior had less impact than
their desire to save money
o Social diffusion: occurs when people change their behavior to be
in line with what others do
 people often change behaviors when they see neighbors,
family, or friends change theirs
o Reference group: a constellation of others who portray standards
with which to evaluate one’s own attitudes, abilities, or current
situation
 consists of people who are liked or respected and they can
have big effects on environmentally relevant behavior through
the power of normative influence
o other people serve as models—their behaviors communicate social
norms
o one of the earliest findings in social psychology is that the
credibility of the source makes a difference—if two different
people present exactly the same information, the one seen with
more credibility—typically the one with higher social status—will be
or persuasive
o foundation of the Union of Concerned Scientists: a group of over
150,000 scientists “whose modus operandi is to bring credible
science into public discourse and the policy process in an accessibly
manner”
Personal Norms
o Personal norms: feelings of obligation to act in particular way
 potent influences on environmental behavior because people
try to avoid the guilt and remorse experienced when they are
broken
 ie: you may take bus (you feel morally obligated)
personal norm, or you believe others would disapprove
of your driving injunctive social norm, or you see
everyone else in neighborhood taking bus—descriptive
social norm
o when people are intrinsically motivated—they are more consistent
and committed
o 2 types:
 Introjected norms: cause guilt if broken
 integrated personal norms: are deeper and so well
internalized into one’s behavior that avoiding guilt isn’t even
an issue
Identity
o identity: a sense of oneself, of who one thinks one is
 straight-A student = personal identity
 member of soccer team = social identity
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
o ecological identity: when one experiences one’s self as an
integral part of the natural world
o social identity: identity that is derived from a group
o group membership also inspires stereotypes and prejudice because
people quickly make distinctions between in-group and outgroup, withholding resources and treating members of the outgroup with less concern than those in their in-group
Personal norms and environmental justice
o Environmental justice: “fair treatment and meaningful
involvement of all people, regardless of race, color, national origin
or income, with respect to the development, implementation and
enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies
o as defined by EPA, environmental justice is a form of distributive
justice as it implies that environmental resources, access, and
problems ought to be distributed equally among different groups
 procedural justice: the fairness with which environmental
decisions are made
 most humans believe species is an ingroup—believing that
other species have less right to exist and less moral
standing—called Speciesism: a form of prejudice analogous
to racism, ageism, and sexism
 depends on clear dividing line between humans and
animals
o Deep ecologists: argue that people shouldn’t draw a line between
animals and people because other species have just as much right
to their place on the planet as human beings
Altruism, Morality, and the values beliefs norms theory
o altruism: the motive to increase another’s welfare without
conscious regard for one’s self interests
o norm activation theory of altruism: people help others (people
or nonhumans) when situations elicit feelings of personal obligation
that is, Introjected norms
o values belief norms (VBN) theory: builds on this idea and
predicts that people will engage in pro-environmental actions when
situations activate personal norms
o values: desirable end states that transcend specific situations
o egoistic values: lead to concern about the environment because of
direct impacts on the individual
 only care if it affects them personally  the phrase “not in
my backyard” reflects egoistic orientation
o altruistic values: care about the environment because of its
relevance for other humans including children, community
members, future generations, and society in general
o biospheric values: lead people to find environmental degradation
problematic because it impacts ecological systems (the biosphere)
 ie: nonhuman animals, plants, oceans, etc.
o in VBN theory, beliefs mediate between values and norms to
influence behavior
 beliefs include those measured by the New ecological
Paradigm as well as awareness of consequences and one’s
perceived ability to reduce the threat
o across cultures, biospheric concerns directly correlate with proenvironmental behavior, egoistic concerns correlates negatively—
that is more egoistic values people have, the less they are to
engage in environmentally friendly behaviors
o promoting power and hope = more likely to be effective that moral
appeals
o attributions: are constantly developed for explaining others
behaviors
 they help people make sense of the world, crease a sense of
order and consistency, and provide convenient shortcuts for
interacting with others—they are often distorted by self
serving bias
Theory of planned behavior (TPB)
 TPB focuses on intentions predicts that one’s intention to act in
environmentally responsible ways depends on three psychological
elements: attitudes, norms, and perceived behavioral control
o according to this theory, pressure can result from either descriptive
or personal norms or both
 Attitude: an evaluative belief about something, like respect
for your friend, skepticism about government regulations, or
appreciation of wilderness
 subjective norm: the perceived social pressure to perform
an action
 behavioral control: believing one has the ability to perform
a particular environmentally relevant action and believing that
action will be successful in accomplishing the intention
 constraints: when a behavior is difficult or you believe your
behavior won’t have any impact, perceived behavioral control
is low and so is environmentally responsible behavior
 when constraints are high they outweigh attitudes and
values
 community based social marketing: urges community
leaders to learn about specific barriers that prevent people
from making good choices in any situation and design
interventions that minimize or reduce specific impediments
 like TPB, this theory is also popular
Cognitive Dissonance Theory
 Cognitive dissonance theory: speculates that whenever people
experience a discrepancy between two thoughts, cognitive dissonance
produces an uncomfortable state of tension that motivates them to take
steps to reduce it
o to reduce dissonance this theory predicts that you will diminish the
importance of one view point and increase importance of the other
 foot in the door technique: if someone gets you to agree to a small
action, you’ll be more likely to undertake a bigger one—this strategy
would predict that you’ll probably go tot the ESA meeting (a big action)
because you previously signed the petition (a little action)
 intent to go public about certain environmental issues apparently is
enough to induce behavior change because people feel they need to try
and live up to their public image; therefore making a public commitment
can even outweigh financial rewards for increasing recycling behavior and
decreasing energy use
Comparison of models linking behavior to attitudes
 cognitive dissonancy theory is the oldest theory—“environmental behavior
isn’t necessarily rational, but instead results from attempts to be
consistent and reduce the discomfort of dissonance
o this theory is useful for creating foot in the door effects
 VBN and TPB = more recent theoriessee environmental behavior as a
logical result of attitudes, beliefs, and norms
o VBN: stresses role of personal norms and moral obligation
stemming from underlying values (personal norms accounted for
64%)
o TBP: highlights intentions and their impact (accounted for 95%
variance in environmental behavior)
WHO CARES ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT?
 general research indicates concerns about environment more prevalent
among whites, politically liberal, and females
 Gender: women tend to show more environmental concern and proenvironmental behaviors than men—because women are usually more
concerned with hazards that impact local community and the health of
their family—they also litter less and eat less meat
o these differences are generally small
 role: a set of norms that define how a person in a given situation should
behave
o across cultures women taught to be more nurturing, cooperative,
and helpful where men are socialized to be more independent and
competitive
 ecofeminism: the view that women have special connection with
environment—emerged in 1970’s

poverty drives overpopulation because there is no other form of social
security than children who will take care of their parents in old age;
gender bias requires that women continue to have babies until enough
sons are born to provide for them and perform sacred funeral rites
THE SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY OF MATERIALISM
 materialism: observable when people explicitly endorse the
accumulation of wealth and possessions as a basic goal in life
 people living in rural city 30 years ago = saw 2,000 ad messages/day;
now it’s 5,000
 materialistic attitudes = problematic because those people have larger
ecological footprints/ consume more of the earth’s resources due to
their lifestyle choices regarding food, transportation, and housing—they
also cooperate less in games involving social dilemmas (conflicts
between personal/group of interests) and thus deplete resources faster
than those that don’t hold those views
 wealthier countries emit more CO2/have bigger ecological print prints
o ecological footprint of U.S. surpassed its biocapacity in 1969/
now earth’s population uses 1 and a third planets’ worth of
resources
 relative deprivation: the sense that one is less well off than others to
whom one compares oneself, that is, relative to one’s reference group
o films promote wealth and consumption as positive trait
o research: people more materialistic in colder climates
o materialistic children have less communication with their parents
and parents who are less supportive of their needs for autonomy
o those raised in financially stressed times are more materialistic than
those raised in more prosperous times
The unhappy results of materialism
 across cultures, materialistic people are less happier
 research on strongest predictors of happiness (see bottom of p. 126/top
of 127)
Materialism and the economy
 when people are too focused on having possessions and making money—
competitive forms of capitalism develop without crucial government
regulation
 Chairman of President Eisenhower’s council: “U.S. economy’s ultimate
purpose is to produce more consumer goods”
 GDP not only hides environmental costs of materialism, but many other
costs of environmental damage as well—when costs are not subtracted,
they contribute to the GDP instead of lowering it
CONCLUSIONS
 Kurt Lewin: it’s easier to change individuals formed into a group than to
change any of them seperately