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9 Ways Media Shapes Norms and Behavior

Psychological theories can help explain media influence and behavior change.

Key points

  • Media can be a potent force for norm and behavior change, through different psychological routes.
  • Social Learning Theory and concepts drawn from behavioral science contribute to our understanding.
  • The work of Albert Bandura, Cristina Bicchieri, and Cass Sunstein sheds light on this.
Jake Hills/Unsplash
Source: Jake Hills/Unsplash

Building on a post that looked at times in which media influenced real-world behaviors, we will reflect below on why this can happen through a constellation of theories.

1. Social Learning Theory. Albert Bandura’s theory gave scientific backing to something that would have been known through common sense and everyday experience. The theory conceptualizes an effect that is known in simple terms as “monkey-see, monkey-do”. The core of the idea is that human beings, especially children, imitate the behaviors that they see in their environment. Media content has grown to become one of the main reference points for many today, especially young people. Some of the other factors listed herein delve further into the details of how consuming media content could influence behavior.

2. Transitional Journeys. Bandura devoted his energy to the area of media influencing behavior. One concept he utilised was that of positive, negative, and transitional models. In his own words on the latter: "These dramatic productions are not fanciful stories; they portray people's everyday lives, help them see a better future and provide them with strategies and incentives that enable them to take the steps to realize it."

3. Cognitive Scripts. Cristina Bicchieri describes how her work in area of using media to change and shape norms can be effective by way of providing viewers with new scripts: cognitive models that we rely on to decide how to act in specific situations. She notes three ways that media can update scripts:

  • by showing a path into previously unchartered waters with a new behavior.
  • by modifying a pre-existing script by showing an alternate path.
  • by incorporating a new norm or behavior into a pre-existing moral structure, and (re)framing that behavior to align with the structure.

Witnessing a character engage in such a journey can allow others to see the behavior in a new light, and do the same.

4. Social Norms, and Normative and Empirical Expectations. Biccheiri describes two important factors that influence what we do. Normative expectations describe what we expect others believe we ought to do in a situation, whereas empirical expectations describe what we think others would actually do. Which of the two is more influential? “We found that what others did overshadowed normative messages (what others said one should do) in forming individuals’ expectations and directing their choices” (Bicchieri, 2016). When a certain behavior is exhibited in media, it can contribute to shifting perceptions of empirical expectations (and normative expectations). Studies have found that simply knowing what others are doing impacts a range of behaviors, including electricity use and voting behavior.

5. The Messenger Effect and Representative Characters. The messenger effect describes the impact that the messenger has upon the uptake of information, more than the actual message itself. If human beings were driven exclusively by rationality, it would be fair to assume that the message carried most weight. However, we appear to be influenced by a number of factors whose relationship with the message is dubious, such as how similar the messenger is to us. The perceived level of authority which the messenger projects is also given importance; while this could be seen as a validation of the message, studies have found that this authority could be signaled by superficial factors such as wearing a lab coat.

Where the messenger effect can be stoked in media is in the characters that are portrayed. Representation in media, usually referring to the presence of identities that are similar to the viewer, is on the increase and so the messenger effect strengthens. Where things can become even more personalized is in social media, where a raft of “characters," each fitting different demographic profiles, channel similar messages such as advertising products.

Jakob Owens/Unsplash
Source: Jakob Owens/Unsplash

6. Norm Entrepreneurs and Trendsetters. The work of Cass Sunstein is instructive in these characters—real or fictional—who lead the way in norm and behavior change. While such characters can be representative, and evoke the messenger effect, they do not need to be. What is more important here is that the character is seen breaking certain norms. Drawing in elements of social learning theory, and the updating of scripts, by seeing a character breaking a norm the consumer of media can be more likely to do the same.

Sunstein writes that a norm entrepreneur “draws attention to what they see as the stupidity, unnaturalness, intrusiveness, or ugliness of current norms…” (Sunstein, 2019).

Referring to a media trendsetter, Bicchieri writes: “The main character of a story about education or child marriage may be a girl belonging to a very typical family with which people can identify. The novelty is that the girl has different aspirations; for example, she wants…to marry for love” (Bicchieri, 2016)

This exemplifies Bandura’s concept of transitional models.

7. Availability Cascades. Timur Kuran and Sunstein describe these as a “self-reinforcing process of collective belief formation by which an expressed perception triggers a chain reaction that gives the perception of increasing plausibility through its rising availability in public discourse” (Kuran & Sunstein, 1999). In other words, as an idea becomes more prevalent in public discourse, it gathers strength and feeds further popularity. Media can play a weighty role in such cascades.

Where this can become even more forceful is when these messages are coming from different levels: a poignant moment in a movie when the star character engages in a new behavior; the influencer on Instagram talking about their own journey with this behavior; or perhaps someone from an individual’s “reference network” (Bichierri’s term for the people in our social circle who “matter”) also taking up the new behaviour. This also draws in the factor of empirical expectations being updated.

The influence of availability cascades touch on a basic reality of human behavior: We are much more suggestible than rational models allow. While behavioral science came to this conclusion relatively recently, Freud and his predecessors became aware of this more than a century ago when they determined that most humans are “credulous."

8. Media and Emotions. Emotions play a pivotal role in shaping behavior. Among the plethora of functions of emotions are their contribution to readying us to behaviorally respond to stimuli, but they also aid us in reflecting and analyzing on our behavior and the behavior of others that we witness. Where discussion and cognitive reflection can serve these ends too, emotions tend to carry more behavioral weight.

Think about that scene in a movie you love – the character and their plight that has absorbed you, with the narrative reaching a critical moment, all the while the scene is inflamed with an emotive soundtrack, and masterful crafting by the movie’s director. The emotional power of such moments can stir us, with the impact reverberating in our being long after the movie has finished.

9. Narratives and stories

Finally, and perhaps at the most basic level, human beings are creatures who have always relied on narratives to shape norms and behaviors. There seems to be something within our makeup that is tapped into by them, and media is one of the most effective ways of disseminating these.

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