Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Aug;48(4):644-658.
doi: 10.1007/s10865-025-00578-7. Epub 2025 Jun 9.

Normative influence in a time of distrust and polarization: how perceived social norms predict COVID-19 vaccination intentions among Black Americans

Tong Lin  1 , Yuan Wang  2 , Kathryn Thier  3 , Xiaoli Nan  3
Affiliations

Normative influence in a time of distrust and polarization: how perceived social norms predict COVID-19 vaccination intentions among Black Americans

Tong Lin et al. J Behav Med. 2025 Aug.

Abstract

This study examined the impact of social norms-descriptive, injunctive, and subjective norms-on COVID-19 vaccination intentions among Black Americans. It also investigated how Black Americans affiliated with Democrats and Republicans perceived norms within their groups and how such perceptions influenced their COVID-19 vaccination intentions. We conducted an online national survey with Black Americans (N = 1497) between February and March 2021. Results showed that all three types of norms were significantly and positively associated with vaccination intentions, with subjective norms exerting the strongest effect. Additionally, higher subjective norms amplified the positive relationship between descriptive norms and vaccination intentions. Republicans were influenced by both in-group and out-group norms, while Democrats were primarily guided by in-group norms, underscoring the potential of bipartisan messaging to boost vaccine uptake. These findings highlight how social norms impact COVID-19 vaccination intentions and reveal that individuals with differing party affiliations are influenced differently based on their perceived identification with reference groups. The study provides insights for designing targeted interventions to improve vaccine uptake among Black Americans and for developing broader public health messaging strategies. It contributes to the literature by revealing how the interplay of descriptive, injunctive, and subjective norms shapes vaccination intentions and by offering a novel perspective on the differentiated effects of in-group and out-group norms based on partisan identity.

Keywords: COVID-19 vaccination; Health disparities; Health promotion; Social norms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The author(s) declare no potential competing interests with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Ethics approval: The study protocol was approved by the University of Maryland Institutional Review Board. Consent to participate: Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Human and animal rights: All procedures involving human participants were conducted in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Perceived norms predicting COVID-19 vaccination intentions. Note. X-axis represents the standardized regression coefficients (ß)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Interaction effects of descriptive and injunctive norms on vaccination intentions
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Interaction effects of descriptive and subjective norms on vaccination intentions
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Aiken, L. S., & West, S. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Sage Publications, Inc.
    1. Ajzen, I. (1991). The theory of planned behavior. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes,50(2), 179–211.
    1. Altemeyer, B. (2004). Highly dominating, highly authoritarian personalities. The Journal of Social Psychology,44(4), 421–448. 10.3200/socp.144.4.421-448 - PubMed
    1. Anderson, J. E., & Dunning, D. (2014). Behavioral norms: Variants and their identification. Social and Personality Psychology Compass,8, 721–738. 10.1111/spc3.12146
    1. Baeza-Rivera, M. J., Salazar-Fernández, C., Araneda-Leal, L., & Manríquez-Robles, D. (2021). To get vaccinated or not? Social psychological factors associated with vaccination intent for COVID-19. Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology. 10.1177/18344909211051799

Substances

LinkOut - more resources