Normative influence on retirement savings decisions: Do people care what employers and the government want?

The need for Australians to increase retirement savings has been widely promoted. Yet our understanding of the motivations of individuals to save at a higher rate remains sparse. This article reports the findings of a survey of superannuation fund members and their intentions to contribute more to superannuation and to manage their investment strategy. The article uses the theory of planned behaviour to focus on the important motivational influence of social norms. Formative research identified a number of influential social referents. Among identified referents, the study found that spouses appear to be the primary source of social influence for retirement savings decisions. The government and employers appear to exert little influence, and financial advisors and superannuation funds take up the middle ground of social influence. Possibilities for interventions designed to influence behaviour are discussed; however, conclusions are tempered by the fact that correspondence between intention and behaviour is not tested in the present research.     

Validation of the Revised Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R) in a sample of persons recovering from myocardial infarction--the Swedish version

When people's health is threatened, they generally develop illness perceptions to make sense of their illness. The Illness Perception Questionnaire (IPQ-R), developed by Moss-Morris et al (2002), has been widely used in many countries to measure such representations. However, since studies in this crucial research area are lacking in Sweden a Swedish version of IPQ-R was validated with a focus on the seven subscales: timeline acute/chronic, timeline cyclical, consequences, personal control, treatment control, illness coherence and emotional representations. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the aim of the present study was to validate the internal structure of the Swedish version in a sample of 202 persons (144 men and 58 women) who had been diagnosed with myocardial infarction four months earlier. Additionally, inter-correlations among the seven subscales and external concurrent validity were also investigated. The results of confirmatory factor analysis revealed that, in line with the English version of the IPQ-R, the specified seven-factor model had a satisfactory fit. One item was however not considered reliable and was therefore excluded from the instrument. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficients) and the inter-factor correlations were relatively similar to those reported in the validation study of the original English IPQ-R. In tests of concurrent validity, the seven IPQ-R subscales were, as hypothesized, mainly associated with external variables. To conclude, the Swedish version of the IPQ-R's seven dimensions, with one item removed, (total 37 items) was found to be a reliable and valid measure of illness perception.     

I've Got My Eyes on You: Implicit Social‐Pressure Cues and Prosocial Behavior

Explicit social pressure has been shown to be a powerful motivator of prosocial behavior‐like voting in elections. In this study, I report the findings of a randomized field experiment designed to study the impact of more subtle, implicit social‐pressure treatments. The results of the experiment, conducted in the October 2011 municipal elections in Key West, Florida, demonstrate that even subtle, implicit observability cues can effectively mobilize citizens to vote, perhaps as much as explicit surveillance cues. The findings speak more broadly to our understanding of human decision making, and even evolution, and provide fodder for the claim that humans are evolutionarily programmed to respond to certain stimuli. I interpret the evidence to support the notion that evolutionarily charged impulses, like exposure to images that implicitly signal the potential for surveillance and observability, are sufficient to overcome powerful collective action incentives to free ride.     

The Selfish Side of Self‐Control

Self‐control is a powerful tool that promotes goal pursuit by helping individuals curb personal desires, follow norms, and adopt rational thinking. In interdependent social contexts, the socially acceptable (i.e. normative) and rational approach to secure long‐term goals is prosocial behaviour. Consistent with that, much research associates self‐control with prosociality. The present research demonstrates that when norm salience is reduced (i.e. social relations are no longer interdependent), high self‐control leads to more selfish behaviour when it is economically rational. In three studies, participants were asked to allocate an endowment between themselves and another person (one‐round, zero‐sum version of the dictator game), facing a conflict between a socially normative and an economically rational approach. Across the studies, norm salience was manipulated [through manipulation of social context (private/public; Studies 1 and 2), measurement of social desirability (Studies 1 and 3), and measurement (Study 2) and manipulation (Study 3) of social power] such that some participants experienced low normative pressure. Findings showed that among individuals in a low normative pressure context, self‐control led to economically rational, yet selfish, behaviour. The findings highlight the role of self‐control in regulating behaviour so as to maximize situational adaptation. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Body image concern among Australian adolescent girls: The role of body comparisons with models and peers

This study investigated the potential mediating roles of body comparisons with peers and models in the relationship between the internalization of thinness norms and body image concern. A total of 224 Western Australian girls aged 14–15 completed questionnaires assessing their endorsement of thinness norms, body image concerns, and frequency of body comparisons with peers and with models. Both targets of body comparisons were found to significantly mediate the relationship between the endorsement of thinness norms and body image concern, with body comparison with peers a stronger mediator than comparison with models. These findings show that body comparison with peers, in particular, plays a significant role in the experience of body image concerns among adolescent girls, and should be given a higher profile in programs designed to prevent or reduce body image concern.     

Effects of Share the Keys (STK), a comprehensive,behavioral-based training program for parents and new teen drivers in New Jersey

The New Jersey Graduated Driver License (GDL) restrictions were updated in 2010 with changes that included a more active role of parents monitoring practice driving with their teens. In addition to extending the driving phases, there were new curfew and passenger limit restrictions. Teen drivers were also required to use red decals on license plates to identify themselves as inexperienced drivers. The Division of Highway Traffic Safety had partnered with the Motor Vehicle Commission in the past to produce practice driving guides for parents of teen drivers, but recognized the need to support this type of informational campaign with an educational program for helping parents to understand changes in the GDL and recognize the importance of their role in the GDL monitoring process. In 2010, the New Jersey Parent/Teen Driver Orientation program was developed to educate parents of teen drivers on the new GDL restrictions and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) findings concerning the importance of parenting roles in teen driver safety. Additional resources were incorporated into the orientation that included the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) community based information and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) parent-teen driver contracts.This community-based training, known as the New Jersey Parent/Teen Driver Orientation was later renamed Share the Keys, and had been developed for the state as a component of the New Jersey Highway Safety grant received by Kean University. The comprehensive program was designed to engage parents, teens, educators, and law enforcement in the teen driving process and help parents to understand how personal parenting styles and engagement may impact teen crash risk and compliance with the GDL restrictions. Local representatives from traffic safety and law enforcement teamed with school officials and driver education teachers to present programs in their communities. The evaluation process was built into the program as a pre-survey administered at the beginning of the session, a post-survey completed directly afterward, and a voluntary follow-up survey completed on line or mailed, beginning six months later.Evidence from the first year showed that parents maintained a significant level of engagement throughout the GDL process with their teen drivers. However, findings did establish the need to further examine why Authoritative parenting styles had declined, especially since this parenting approach was considered in the literature as most effective in reducing teen crash risks. Therefore, the scope of this study was broadened to a three year effort that reached over 2800 parents and investigated behavioral outcomes impacted by Share the Keys. While comparisons made between driving phases and parenting styles had yielded no significant results, changes within parenting style scores were shown to be effective over time. The reported levels of Permissive and Uninvolved parents remained consistent throughout all three driving phases, while Authoritarian parenting peaked during the Probationary phase, and Authoritative parenting was noted as highest once teens earned their license.