Leveraging Dynamic Norm Messages to Promote Counter-Normative Health Behaviors: The Moderating Role of Current and Future Injunctive Norms, Attitude and Self-Efficacy

Describing that many people perform a certain behavior has been known to increase people's behavioral intentions. However, the underlying premise is that the behavior must be high in prevalence. The present study examined whether describing low-prevalence behaviors (static norm) and framing low-prevalence behaviors as increasing in popularity across time (dynamic norm) may increase behavioral intentions in the context of getting the flu shot and eating less red meat. In addition, the study aimed to examine whether other behavioral antecedents could moderate the effect of viewing these normative messages. An experiment that randomly assigned participants to view either dynamic norm messages, static norm messages, and no messages (control) was conducted. Results indicated that for the behavior of eating less red meat, viewing a static norm message backfired while viewing a dynamic norm message did not. Moreover, the effect of viewing low-prevalence norm messages was moderated by other behavioral antecedents such as, current and future injunctive norm perceptions and attitude. These findings contribute to the theoretical and practical understanding of utilizing low-prevalence norms for persuasion.