Join us: Dynamic norms encourage women to pursue STEM

Dynamic Norms and Vaping: A Test of Four Mediators

Background: The prevalence of vaping among young people is a public health crisis. Social norms can contribute to the problem, but also to the solution. Objective: The current study examined young adults' responses to anti-vaping messages that varied on two features: social norms and behavioral framing. Methods: College students (N = 270) were randomly assigned to one of five conditions in a 2 (social norm: dynamic norm, static norm) X 2 (behavioral framing: vaping, not vaping) between-subjects factorial design with a no message control condition (n range = 49-58 in each condition). Results: Independent samples t-test, univariate analysis of variance, and structural equation modeling were used to test hypotheses and answer research questions. Results showed main effects of social norm, such that the dynamic (vs. static) norm message led to higher preconformity (p <.001) and self-efficacy (p = .012), and lower freedom threat (p = .040) and reactance (p < .001). There was also an indirect effect of dynamic norm on attitude as mediated by self-efficacy (p = .040). No main effect of behavioral framing was observed. Few interactions between social norm and behavioral framing were observed on preconformity (p < .001), anger (p < .001), and negative cognitions (p = .003). Conclusion: Overall, findings suggest a persuasive advantage for a dynamic norm relative to a static norm. Theoretically, these findings add to the literature suggesting the persuasiveness of dynamic norms. Practically, these results imply anti-vaping campaigns targeting young populations should communicate the changing (dynamic) norms in regard to (not) vaping.

Shifting norms, static behaviour: effects of dynamic norms on meat consumption

While decreasing their meat consumption is one of the most impactful behaviours an individual may carry out to reduce their carbon emissions, it is still a minority behaviour in many parts of the world. Research suggests that communicating information about changing 'dynamic' norms may be a useful tool for changing attitudes and behaviours in the direction of those currently held by the minority. This study uses a 2 × 2 mixed design (norm type [dynamic/static] × visual cue [present/absent, and a no-task control), and a follow-up assessment after one week to investigate the effect of making dynamic norms salient on various meat consumption outcomes: attitudes towards meat consumption, interest in reducing one's own meat consumption, intentions to reduce one's own meat consumption and self-reported meat consumption. We used an online sample of British participants (N = 1294), ranging in age 18-77 (M age = 39.97, s.d.age = 13.71; 55.8% female). We hypothesized that: (i) dynamic norms will positively influence meat consumption outcomes; (ii) visual cues will accentuate the difference between norm conditions; (iii) using a visual cue will enhance the effect of dynamic norms; and (iv) any effects of dynamic norms will endure over a period of one week. We found no positive effect of dynamic norms (versus static norms) on any outcome at time 1, and no positive effect on changes in outcomes from time 1 to time 2. However, we found a positive interaction of norm type and visual cue at time 1 (although not from time 1 to time 2): the addition of a visual cue to dynamic norm messages enhanced the positive effect of the message at time 1 (but did not enhance the changes occurring from time 1 to time 2). Analyses for changes in self-reported meat consumption did not reach our evidential threshold. We discuss the practical and theoretical implications of these findings.

Reducing the gender gap on adolescents' interest in study fields: The impact of perceived changes in ingroup gender norms and gender prototypicality

Despite some progress towards gender equality in Western societies, traditional gender norms still shape career choices, perpetuating a gender gap where girls are more likely to pursue traditionally feminine fields like healthcare, elementary education, and domestic roles (HEED), while boys are drawn to masculine domains such as science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). This research investigates whether, and under which conditions, the perception that gender norms are progressively changing towards less gender dichotomy can reduce this gender gap in academic fields. We recruited a sample of 642 high-school students (394 women and 248 men), and experimentally manipulated both the salience of changes in gender norm (stability vs change) and participants' gender prototypicality. The main dependent variable was participants' interest in stereotypically feminine (HEED) and masculine (STEM) academic fields. The results indicated a slight decrease in the gender gap for stereotypically feminine fields (HEED) among participants who saw themselves as typical members of their gender group, but no significant change was observed for stereotypically masculine fields (STEM). These findings suggest that shifting perceptions of gender norms may have a limited effect on modifying traditional educational and career choices, underscoring the resilience of entrenched gender stereotypes.

Supplementary Information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11218-024-09909-z.

Analysis of barriers, supports and gender gap in the choice of STEM studies in secondary education

Society is more digitised than ever and there is an urgent need to train people in these sectors, where women are still under-represented. A quantitative descriptive, correlational and explanatory descriptive design was used to identify barriers, supports and gender gaps in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Secondary Education by analysing the interest and perception of 1562 students and 432 teachers. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square and Lambda test and Crame's V or Phi test were performed together with a qualitative analysis. The results show that fewer female students want to pursue STEM studies, with girls preferring health and education professions and boys preferring engineering and computer science. Indeed, their motivation is different since we found correlations between being a girl and choosing STEM for helping people and society, while earning money is important for boys. Girls believe more necessary than boys to have qualities to study STEM and less often perceive themselves as intelligent and courageous. Our study revealed that families and teachers encourage more boys than girls towards STEM activities. Teachers believe that girls are influence by preconceived ideas, lack of STEM knowledge and lower self-esteem. Regarding gender equality, almost half state that no objectives are included in the curricula, 43.85% do not include it in subjects and only 30% received training. Consequently, female vocations need to be promoted by teaching how STEM solves real-life problems, fostering creativity, increasing self-confidence, promoting STEM activities and making female role models visible. Teachers should receive more gender training and promote gender-sensitive STEM education.

Facilitating innovation diffusion in social networks using dynamic norms

Dynamic norms have recently emerged as a powerful method to encourage individuals to adopt an innovation by highlighting a growing trend in its uptake. However, there have been no concrete attempts to understand how this individual-level mechanism might shape the collective population behavior. Here, we develop a framework to examine this by encapsulating dynamic norms within a game-theoretic mathematical model for innovation diffusion. Specifically, we extend a network coordination game by incorporating a probabilistic mechanism where an individual adopts the action with growing popularity, instead of the standard best-response update rule; the probability of such an event captures the population's "sensitivity" to dynamic norms. Theoretical analysis reveals that sensitivity to dynamic norms is key to facilitating social diffusion. Small increases in sensitivity reduces the advantage of the innovation over status quo or the number of initial innovators required to unlock diffusion, while a sufficiently large sensitivity alone guarantees diffusion.

Dynamic Norms and Food Choice: Reflections on a Failure of Minority Norm Information to Influence Motivation to Reduce Meat Consumption

Recent research in the US shows the potential of providing information about minority norms that are increasing on positively influencing interest and engagement in desired behaviours. Although these are promising findings, there is little published research replicating or testing this effect outside the US. The study reported here is a direct replication of Sparkman and Walton’s (2017) research. We explored the effects of different kinds of normative information, particularly information about increasing (referred to as ‘dynamic’ or ‘trending’) minority norms, on interest in reducing meat consumption, attitudes toward reducing meat consumption, intentions to reduce meat consumption, and expectations to do so. Following pilot work (n = 197), we used a double-blind online study with three conditions: dynamic norm (n = 276), static norm (n = 284), and no norm (n = 286). The sample consisted of British people, with ages ranging from 18 to 79 (Mage = 37.21, SDage = 13.58; 56.38% female). There was no effect of dynamic norm information on any outcomes, including predictions about future meat consumption norms. Exploratory analyses suggest that political position and gender were associated with meat consumption outcomes. The findings are discussed in relation to conditions under which dynamic normative information may be successful in influencing motivation to engage in desired behaviours, and to possible improvements in research design.