Majority and popularity effects on norm formation in adolescence

Abstract Personal norms consist of individuals’ attitudes about the appropriateness of behaviour. These norms guide adolescents’ behaviour in countless domains that are fundamental for their social functioning and well-being. Peers are known to have a marked influence on adolescent risk-taking and p...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ana da Silva Pinho, Lucas Molleman, Barbara R. Braams, Wouter van den Bos
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2021-06-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92482-8
id doaj-8ee66fcf357b45549c9d3cd92a4deda7
record_format Article
spelling doaj-8ee66fcf357b45549c9d3cd92a4deda72021-06-20T11:37:12ZengNature Publishing GroupScientific Reports2045-23222021-06-0111111010.1038/s41598-021-92482-8Majority and popularity effects on norm formation in adolescenceAna da Silva Pinho0Lucas Molleman1Barbara R. Braams2Wouter van den Bos3Department of Psychology, University of AmsterdamDepartment of Psychology, University of AmsterdamFaculty of Behavioral and Movement Sciences, Department of Clinical, Neuro- and Developmental Psychology, Vrije Universiteit AmsterdamDepartment of Psychology, University of AmsterdamAbstract Personal norms consist of individuals’ attitudes about the appropriateness of behaviour. These norms guide adolescents’ behaviour in countless domains that are fundamental for their social functioning and well-being. Peers are known to have a marked influence on adolescent risk-taking and prosocial behaviour, but little is known about how peers shape personal norms underlying those behaviours. Here we show that adolescents’ personal norms are decisively moulded by the norms of the majority and popular peers in their social network. Our experiment indicates that observing peer norms substantially impacts adolescents’ normative evaluation of risk-taking and prosocial behaviours. The majority norm had a stronger impact than the norm of a single popular peer, and norm adjustments were largest when adolescents observed strong disapproval of risk-taking or strong approval of prosocial behaviour. Our study suggests that learning about peer norms likely promotes adolescents to hold views and values supporting socially desirable behaviour.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92482-8
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Ana da Silva Pinho
Lucas Molleman
Barbara R. Braams
Wouter van den Bos
spellingShingle Ana da Silva Pinho
Lucas Molleman
Barbara R. Braams
Wouter van den Bos
Majority and popularity effects on norm formation in adolescence
Scientific Reports
author_facet Ana da Silva Pinho
Lucas Molleman
Barbara R. Braams
Wouter van den Bos
author_sort Ana da Silva Pinho
title Majority and popularity effects on norm formation in adolescence
title_short Majority and popularity effects on norm formation in adolescence
title_full Majority and popularity effects on norm formation in adolescence
title_fullStr Majority and popularity effects on norm formation in adolescence
title_full_unstemmed Majority and popularity effects on norm formation in adolescence
title_sort majority and popularity effects on norm formation in adolescence
publisher Nature Publishing Group
series Scientific Reports
issn 2045-2322
publishDate 2021-06-01
description Abstract Personal norms consist of individuals’ attitudes about the appropriateness of behaviour. These norms guide adolescents’ behaviour in countless domains that are fundamental for their social functioning and well-being. Peers are known to have a marked influence on adolescent risk-taking and prosocial behaviour, but little is known about how peers shape personal norms underlying those behaviours. Here we show that adolescents’ personal norms are decisively moulded by the norms of the majority and popular peers in their social network. Our experiment indicates that observing peer norms substantially impacts adolescents’ normative evaluation of risk-taking and prosocial behaviours. The majority norm had a stronger impact than the norm of a single popular peer, and norm adjustments were largest when adolescents observed strong disapproval of risk-taking or strong approval of prosocial behaviour. Our study suggests that learning about peer norms likely promotes adolescents to hold views and values supporting socially desirable behaviour.
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-92482-8
work_keys_str_mv AT anadasilvapinho majorityandpopularityeffectsonnormformationinadolescence
AT lucasmolleman majorityandpopularityeffectsonnormformationinadolescence
AT barbararbraams majorityandpopularityeffectsonnormformationinadolescence
AT woutervandenbos majorityandpopularityeffectsonnormformationinadolescence
_version_ 1721369891390357504