The Effect Of Social Norms On Health Behavior

Social norms are important social factors that change people’s intentions or behaviors.However,the results of previous studies on the impact of social norms on health behaviors are not that consistent.Perhaps social norms are limited in their effectiveness.Given that an intention-behavior gap always exists,some studies have found that the behavior automaticity and implementation intention could bridge the intention-behavior gap.In these studies,our aim is to explore the moderating role of habit strength and implementation intention on the effectiveness of social norms on health behavior.That is,whether the difference in habit strength would affect the social norms intervention on fruit intake and physical activity,and whether there is a significant social norm habit strength implementation intention interaction on physical activity.In study 1,after the measurement of the habit strength of fruit intake,194 undergraduate students were divided into 2 groups to accept social norms or control interventions,the fruit intake of all participants was tracked in the next 7 days.The result showed that the habit strength could moderate the effect of social norms on fruit consumption.Specifically,social norms intervention significantly increased the fruit consumption in those with high habit strength but not in those with low habit strength.A 2(social norms group vs.no social norms group)× 2(implementation intention vs.no implementation intention group)between-participants design was used in study 2.After the measurement of the habit strength of physical activity,237 college students were arranged into 4 groups.The physical activity level of these participants was recorded in the next 7days.The results showed that the implementation intention would interfere with the moderating effect of habit strength on social norms.Specifically,under the condition of no implementation intention,social norms intervention increased the physical activity level in those with high habit strength but not in those with low habit strength.While under the condition of implementation intention,social norms intervention did not increase the physical activity level in those with high habit strength nor with low habit strength significantly.In both studies,the effectively moderating role of habit strength on social norms were observed in students with below but not upon average level of fruit intake or physical activity...