Social Norms from a Goal-System Point of View: Contributions of Activity Analysis

In this article, we used a social injunctive norm to incentivize the elaboration of energy-efficient projects within a building renovation simulation application. We manipulated the norm saliency (presence on the interface) and compared its effect to that of an arbitrary set goal and a no-goal condition (control). Results show that both an injunctive norm and an explicit goal, when salient, led to more energy-efficient designs. Furthermore, participants exposed to the salient injunctive norm identified important parameters more quickly, were more efficient, and were more consistently focused on energy (vs. furnishing). Implications for theory and methodology for further experiments are discussed.