How to create new norms in groups
Issue 101: A story about behavioral contagion and how you can harness the power of social norms
One of the questions we get all the time is: How do I apply the insights from social psychology to create change in my own organization or community?
To address this issue, we have created and delivered talks and workshops about the “Power of Us”, collective psychology, and social norms to people around the world. In addition to sharing this research with people who can use it, it has helped us generated new insights by talking to people outside academia and working on these issues in the real world.
One of those insights happened at a recent full-day workshop that Jay gave to 100 leaders in Bergen, Norway. He thought it provided a powerful example of how to create new—and healthier—social norms. We decided to share it here since it provides some practical tools that anyone can use.
After the first section of the workshop, Jay asked the audience to turn to the person sitting to their left or right and share their insights. This was designed to help people digest the knowledge, connect with new people, and generate new insights. This dynamic social interaction is one of the things people love the most when we host workshops. The room is usually buzzing so much that it can be hard to get people to stop chatting and pay attention to the next part of the workshop!
But something unique happened this time! Jay noticed that a group of 5-6 people had spontaneously formed in the corner of the room. They turned their chairs into a circle. Jay had never seen this happen in many years of giving talks and workshops. But a little light 💡 went off in his head.
He saw an opportunity to turn this social innovation into an entirely new norm for the entire group. Was there a way to make it contagious and spread from a small group of people to 100 leaders?
After the break, Jay resumed leading the workshop and pointed the tiny new group out to everyone in the room and praised them for forming a more inclusive group discussion. He was hoping that highlighting this group as a positive role model could trigger behavioral contagion and have this new social norm spread throughout the room.
An hour later, Jay again encouraged everyone in the room to discuss the concepts with the person sitting beside them for a few minutes. This time, 8 large groups spontaneously formed across the room!
There was no explicit request for them to form groups. But simply noticing the early example and seeing them publicly praised made people realize this was a positive opportunity. They organically reached out to the strangers sitting around them and former more inclusive discussions.
Again, Jay pointed this out to everyone and explained that a new social norm was taking hold without any real pressure or incentives. The norm was gaining momentum!
By the end of the day, when Jay asked people to discuss the issues the entire room of 100 people had created little groups. You can see in this photo. Not a single person was excluded and there were no dyads left—only groups where people completely turned around their chairs.
Facilitators often spend a great deal of time setting up chairs and tables before events like this to try and force people into these types of interactions. But in this workshop, people altered the physical environment necessary for these connections to work. All it took was noticing a single example and hearing it rewarded.
This was one of the funnest examples we have ever experienced of the development of a new social norm. Simply highlighting the initial group and putting them a positive light, led the entire group to copy the behavior and connect with people who were strangers a few minutes earlier.
It goes to show the power of social norms and how we can encourage people to engage in cooperation and inclusive behavior with the right nudges. Here are some of the lessons about norms that you can apply to your own team, organizations, and communities:
Norms can emerge organically. Pay carefully attention to social innovations from members of your group. In this case, a small group in the audience came up with a better idea that the person leading the workshop!
Copy what works. Look for examples of potential norms and try to find what works. At the workshop, there were a lot of potential variations in behavior going on (e.g., people standing in the back of the room, going for coffee, checking their email). But Jay decided to amplify the one behavior that seemed most conducive to a successful experience—the formation of a small group.
Shine a spotlight on the behavior. To help the norm spread, you need to ensure everyone else sees it. Lots of norms are hidden from view, but you need to pull them out of the shadows so that other people can see and copy the behavior.
Lavish the right norms with praise. People care deeply about receiving social rewards and copying what works—especially if they value the group. If they seeing you praising someone or offering other informal rewards, they will usually try to emulate that behavior. By publicly praising the small group, Jay was signaling that it was a valued activity in the workshop.
Using these four actions is fairly simple and easy to do. It cost nothing. And at the end of the day, everyone was feeling pretty pumped about the experience—even Jay. He went from feeling a bit ill and jet lagged to feeling energized. And now you have the same tools to create new norms too. Use your power wisely.
If you’re interesting in bringing one of our workshops to your organization, please check out our website!
News and Updates
There has been a huge amount of debate recently about whether institutions and organizations should make public statements. Our of curiosity, Jay ran a poll on Twitter/X and Threads about whether or not organizations should make public statements about political issues. To his surprise, the results revealed that the overwhelming majority of people DO NOT believe that they should be made.
While some people liked the idea of public statements (one person said it was useful to know where an organization stood on an issue, even if they disagreed), there were numerous and widely varied objections. Some people thought they were simply ineffective, others thought they were alienating, and others thought they fostered unnecessary conflict. We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments: should leaders make political statements? Why or why not?
We are planning a newsletter on this topic in the near future, so stay tuned.
Learn more about THE POWER OF US
If you like our newsletter, we encourage you to check out our award-winning book “The Power of Us: Harnessing Our Shared Identities to Improve Performance, Increase Cooperation, and Promote Social Harmony”. You can learn more about the book or order it from the links on our website (here or scan the QR code below). We keep the newsletter free, but are extremely grateful if you have a chance to purchase the book or buy it for a friend this holiday season who wants to learn more about group psychology.
Catch up on the last one…
In our now most read newsletter of all time, we explain the psychology of keeping your New Year’s Resolutions! Read the piece that landed on the front page of Google search below.
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No, organizations should not make statements on political issues. I believe that the trend and call for organizations to do so reinforces the incorrect idea that corporations and organizations are individuals.