Communication as the crucial link: Toward a multilevel approach to normative social influence

Abstract

Social norms are informal rules within a group or society. Despite the consensus that social norms affect behavior, there is an inherent tension in the cross-disciplinary norms literature between the conceptualization of norms as individual and collective phenomena. The present paper capitalizes on the potential of communication as the link between different levels of social norms to develop an integrative approach to normative social influences. Concretely, it refers to the differentiation between perceived and collective norms, systematizes the current literature on the role of communication in social normative influences, and outlines how communication serves as functional link between the individual and collective level of norms. The resulting multilevel approach to normative social influences (MANSI) allows us to reflect on norms as dynamic phenomena that account for individual and social change. Ultimately, we discuss challenges and areas for further inquiry for the study of norms, and thereby derive recommendations for future research on multilevel normative social influences.

Keywords

• perceived norms
• collective norms
• multilevel approach
• communication processes
• cross-level link
• social change