Extending the Theory of Normative Social Behavior: Collective Norms, Opinion Leadership, and Masking During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Novel, public behaviors, such as masking, should be susceptible to normative influence. This paper advances the theory of normative social behavior by considering a new set of moderators of normative influence - superdiffuser traits - and by clarifying the antecedents and consequences of exposure to collective norms. We use data from a two-wave survey of a cohort living in one U.S. county during the pandemic (N = 913) to assess normative effects on masking. We also used a bipartite network (based on people shopping for food in the same stores) to examine exposure to collective norms. The results show different superdiffuser traits have distinct effects on the relationship between perceived injunctive norms and masking intentions. Exposure to collective norms influences masking, but this influence depends on how people interact with their social environments. Network analysis shows that behavioral homophily is a significant predictor of selective exposure to collective norms earlier (but not later) in the pandemic. Implications for understanding normative influence in a context where opinion leadership matters are discussed.

The Hyperperception Model: When Your Partner's New Friends Inspire Jealousy and Failing to Use Social Distancing.

The hyperperception model was used to derive hypotheses concerning the processes by which people experience romantic jealousy because of their observation of their romantic partners on social network sites. The main focus was on the receiver component of the model that specifies that when observation of others' interactions is constrained to social media, those interactions appear more intimate than when the dyad is also observable offline. A survey (N = 322) was conducted to test this component of the model and determine if the model can predict additional phenomena such as possession signals and staying home during the COVID-19 pandemic. The data were generally consistent with the hypotheses and the utility of the hyperperception model for understanding the effects of observing romantic partners' interactions on social media. The data also reveal the importance of interpersonal processes in obeying social distancing guidelines.

Who Persuades Who? An Analysis of Persuasion Choices Related to Antibiotic-Free Food.

Personal communication, in which one person persuades another to engage in a particular behavior, is one means through which behaviors spread. To better understand how personal communication spreads behavior, we investigated adults' (N = 228) likelihood of persuading others in a fictitious social network to buy antibiotic-free food, and who they attempted to persuade, based on behavioral determinants, homophily, and superdiffuser traits. For potential consumers, the findings showed that behavioral determinants, behavioral intentions, and mavenism predicted intentions to persuade others. Homophily, mavenism, and connectivity predicted patterns of interpersonal persuasion. For vegetarians (without homophily in action), behavioral determinants and mavenism predicted persuasion intentions. Persuasiveness was associated with targeting more network members; mavenism was associated with selecting structurally central members.

Employing interpersonal influence to promote multivitamin use.

Boster, Kotowski, Andrews, and Serota (2011 ) proposed that superdiffusers are well connected, persuasive, and a maven in a content area. They proposed that superdiffusers, if recruited, could promote the adoption of health practices. In this article a model of this process is presented, and an intervention designed to test the efficacy of this influence strategy is introduced. Specifically, superdiffusers were recruited to persuade their peers to take a daily multivitamin. Evidence was found consistent with the intervention's effectiveness.

A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of health belief model variables in predicting behavior.

The Health Belief Model (HBM; Rosenstock, 1966) was constructed to explain which beliefs should be targeted in communication campaigns to cause positive health behaviors. The model specifies that if individuals perceive a negative health outcome to be severe, perceive themselves to be susceptible to it, perceive the benefits to behaviors that reduce the likelihood of that outcome to be high, and perceive the barriers to adopting those behaviors to be low, then the behavior is likely for those individuals. A meta-analysis of 18 studies (2,702 subjects) was conducted to determine whether measures of these beliefs could longitudinally predict behavior. Benefits and barriers were consistently the strongest predictors. The length of time between measurement of the HBM beliefs and behavior, prevention versus treatment behaviors, and drug-taking regimens versus other behaviors were identified as moderators of the HBM variables' predictive power. Based on the weakness of two of the predictors, the continued use of the direct effects version of the HBM is not recommended.