Social norms from a goal-system point of view: Contributions of activity analysis
Résumé
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.