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Category: Project

Description: Teachers use injunctive norms when telling students what they should be doing. But researchers find that sometimes descriptive norms, information about what others are doing, more powerfully influence behavior. Currently, we examine which norm is more effective at increasing self-regulated studying and performance in an online college course. We found injunctive norms increased study behaviors aimed at fulfilling course requirements (completion of assigned activities), but did not improve learning outcomes. Descriptive norms increased behaviors aimed at improving knowledge (ungraded practice with activities after they were due), and improved performance. These results imply norms have a stronger influence over behavior when there is a match between the goal of the behavior (fulfilling course requirements vs. learning goals) and the pull of a stated norm (social approval vs. efficacy). Because the goal of education is learning, this suggests descriptive norms have a greater value for motivating self-regulated study in authentic learning environments.