Perceived social norms and social media: Toward an understanding of influence and persuasion online

Elliot Panek ^1* Saar Mollen ² Christopher Cascio ³

• ¹ University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, United States
• ² University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
• ³ University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States

Injunctive and descriptive social norm appeals are successful tools to motivate behavior. Given the prevalence of normative appeals presented on social media, expanding our understanding of these appeals is important. Two two-wave studies by Schorn and Wirth indicated that though normative appeals influenced perceived norms across both studies, only injunctive majority appeals influenced persuasive outcomes.In a survey study of perceptions of the benefits of having children and China's birth encouragement policies, Li found a relationship between Chinese women's own attention to social media content and interpersonal communication about the benefits of having children and the presumed influence these messages have on others. This subsequently related to their injunctive and descriptive norm perceptions and personal norms regarding support for birth encouragement policies.Angelini and colleagues examined associations between teen interactions on social media with peers and friendship quality. Findings suggest that adolescents who engage in more peer-oriented social media use, value their friendships more. This research highlights the importance of peer norms on social media during adolescence.Data from a large cross-sectional survey in 17 countries was used to investigate the relationship between distal (similar people in the same country) and proximal (close friends) injunctive norm perceptions and intentions to purchase counterfeit products. Konanova and colleagues found that distal injunctive norm perceptions predicted proximal injunctive norm perceptions, and proximal norms predicted intentions to make purchases. In countries that score higher on power distance, the relation between distal and proximal injunctive norms was weaker.This collections' research has implications for those designing the next generation of social media platforms. Zou and colleagues find that features intended to increase user engagement by making them more visible to mutual friends may inadvertently curb it. Norm violation online carries the same stigma as it does offline, and the desire to avoid embarrassment, the study suggests, may be more powerful than the desire to connect.The types of entertainment media we enjoy online are affected by our perceptions of who else enjoys them, as is demonstrated by the research of Wang and colleagues. Feelings of transportation and immersion in fictional television narratives, the study shows, are partially contingent upon whether one's family and friends recommend it. These findings suggest that there are limits to online streamers' ability to disseminate values across cultures. Enjoyment of narratives is embedded not just in cultural contexts, but in social ones. This special issue highlights how online information and interpersonal communication may work together or even interact to influence perceived social norms, subsequently influencing attitudes, intentions, and behaviors. Social norms are communicated online in various ways (injunctive and descriptive) from various sources (proximal and distal); researchers attempting to understand influence online should account for this variety. Collectively, these studies offer insights into the complex, rapidly evolving social contexts of online life, setting the stage for future research.