Social Norms: The Model

A growing body of research shows that a person's behavior is strongly influenced by incorrect perceptions of how other members of his or her social group think and act.

Essentially, the strategy of the social norms approach is to gather credible data from a specific population and then consistently communicate the truth about its actual norms of health, safety, and protection. With repeated exposure to a variety of positive, data based messages, the misperceptions that help to sustain problem behavior are corrected, and the population begins to adhere to a more accurately perceived norm of health and safety.

Schematically, the model works like this: