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. 2022 Nov 29:13:989599.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.989599. eCollection 2022.

When combining injunctive and descriptive norms strengthens the hypocrisy effect: A test in the field of discrimination

Maxime Mauduy  1   2 , Daniel Priolo  3 , Nicolas Margas  2 , Cécile Sénémeaud  1
Affiliations

When combining injunctive and descriptive norms strengthens the hypocrisy effect: A test in the field of discrimination

Maxime Mauduy et al. Front Psychol. .

Abstract

The induced-hypocrisy is a paradigm in which people promote a normative behavior (normative salience step) and then recall their past transgressions (transgression salience step). It is an effective two-step procedure for encouraging prosocial behaviors. This study aims to explore whether discrimination can be reduced using the hypocrisy paradigm combining two kinds of social norms, namely injunctive and descriptive norms. We assigned 80 participants to descriptive norm-related hypocrisy, injunctive norm-related hypocrisy, combined-norm hypocrisy, and control conditions. Results showed that intention to adopt active normative behaviors was higher in the combined-norms than in the single norm hypocrisy conditions. We observed the same pattern in reducing discriminatory behaviors in the Cyberball game, which measures passive discrimination (exclusion). Our findings have both practical and theoretical implications. First, they provide a new and effective means for producing behavioral changes in the field of discrimination. Second, they contribute to further investigating the explanatory processes underlying the hypocrisy effect.

Keywords: Cyberball game; descriptive norm; discrimination prevention; induced-hypocrisy paradigm; injunctive norm.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest. The reviewer LR declared a shared research group with the author(s) to the handling Editor.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Illustration of the cyberball game for female participants. The bogus players’ images were taken from the Langner et al. (2010) radboud faces database. Reproduced with permission from Langner et al. (2010), available at: https://rafd.socsci.ru.nl/RaFD2/RaFD?p=main.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Participants’ amount of volunteering. Volunteering of participants is shown for the four experimental conditions (N = 80). Volunteering was measured by asking participants how much time they were willing to give to a discrimination prevention association. Volunteering is in minutes and error bars show standard deviations.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Differences in participants’ hesitation given inclusion. Differences in participants’ hesitation given inclusion (HGI) between the black player and the white players are shown for the four experimental conditions (N = 80). Differences in hesitation given inclusion were calculated by subtracting the average HGI scores of the white players from the HGI score of the black player. Scores are in milliseconds and error bars show standard deviations.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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