The Influence of Descriptive Social Norm Information on Sustainable Transportation Behavior: A Field Experiment

A month-long field experiment evaluated the impact of descriptive social norm information on self-reported reduction of private vehicle use. Following a baseline week, participants were asked to reduce their vehicle use by 25% and were randomly assigned to a control condition or to a low or high social norm condition in which they received information that either underor over-reported others’ successful efforts to switch to sustainable transportation. Results indicated a significant linear trend, such that messages highlighting more prevalent descriptive social norms increased sustainable transportation behavior (relative to private vehicle use) for commuting, but not non-commuting, purposes. Participants in the high social norm condition decreased their commuting-related private vehicle use by approximately five times, compared with baseline. Car-use message campaigns can reduce private vehicle use by highlighting descriptive norms about others’ sustainable transportation efforts, but these messages appear to be most effective for commuting behavior. 1University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada Corresponding Author: Christine Kormos, Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, P. O. Box 3050, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, V8W 3P5. Email: [email protected] 520416 EABXXX10.1177/0013916513520416Environment and BehaviorKormos et al research-article2014