Communication and Normative Influence: An Introduction to the Special Issue

In recent years, we have witnessed a resurgence of interest in the study of normative influences. The multitude of scholars who approach the topic from a variety of disciplinary perspectives widely share the convention, backed by strong empirical evidence, that social norms exert a great deal of influence on human behavior and that processes of normative influence exist in a variety of contexts and situations that people encounter in their everyday lives. Still, despite several efforts to link norms to behavior more explicitly, much about the actual mechanisms and processes through which normative influence is exerted remains unclear. Much more work also needs to be done in specifying the role that human communication processes play in how norms are understood and disseminated in a social group. It is worth noting that much of this theoretical ambiguity stems from the inherent tension between social and individual conceptualization of norms and their influence on behavior. The social perspective views norms as the property of the group and the process of normative influence as one that is essentially grounded in a person's relationships with other group members. Norms are said to be an important source of influence on personal behavior primarily when group members are present and are able to provide rewards for compliance or sanctions for noncompliance. According to the individual perspective, mental representations of group norms (or perceived norms), and not the norms themselves, exert the most influence on behavior. Here, norms are influential to the extent that people seek to self-validate their opinions and behaviors by comparing themselves to other group members, regardless of whether or not group members are physically present and without necessarily having to experience any form of group coercion. The strongest and most enduring form of normative influence, internalization, occurs when personal and perceived group norms converge. Although the process of internalization may be initiated in the presence of the group, its influence on individual behavior is thought to occur even when group members are not present to exert their influence (Kelman, 1958), supposedly because individuals have internalized the appropriate mode of conduct (Sherif, 1935).