Principle 7: Reinforce social norms
💡 We do what other people do.
Social norms offer guidance for our behaviour by telling us what others (particularly those who are like us) are doing or what they expect us to do. There is evidence that social norms are associated with vaccination decisions, and one study found that perceiving greater support for HPV vaccination from friends, parents or a doctor was associated with increased vaccine intentions (1).
Watch this “I got the HPV vaccine” video!
HSE Ireland produced the “I got the HPV vaccine” video, which reinforces HPV vaccination as a social norm by showing many young women who received the vaccine.
There are two points to consider in a communication campaign using social norms:
- The social norm must be true. In other words, messaging that “90% of children in your village are vaccinated” when that is not true is not a credible message.
- The social norm should be a common practice that you want to encourage. For example, a message that “90% of parents in your village don’t vaccinate their children against polio, leading to disease outbreaks” is unlikely to encourage parents to vaccinate. If the practice that you'd like to encourage is not yet common, then a message on the behavior you'd like to promote is the next best alternative. An effective message in this case might be “vaccinate your child against polio to prevent them from getting polio”.
Sources:
(1) Brewer NT, Chapman GB, Rothman AJ, Leask J, Kempe A. Increasing Vaccination: Putting Psychological Science Into Action. Psychol Sci Public Interest. 2017;18(3):149-207. & Stout ME, Christy SM, Winger JG, Vadaparampil ST, Mosher CE. Self efficacy and HPV Vaccine Attitudes Mediate the Relationship Between Social Norms and Intentions to Receive the HPV Vaccine Among College Students. J Community Health. 2020 May 16. doi: 10.1007/ s10900-020-00837-5. Epub ahead of print.