Norms-based Interventions for Social Change

Michael Brownstein

ABSTRACT

I distinguish “norm-based interventions” from other strategies to reduce prejudice and argue that they are a powerful class of tools. Norm-based interventions reduce prejudice by changing social norms and, importantly, people’s perceptions of them, instead of changing beliefs or attitudes about social groups directly (Tankard & Paluck 2016). Building on recent cognitive-evolutionary work on norm psychology (e.g., Richardson & Boyd 2005; Henrich 2015; Kelly & Davis forthcoming), I suggest that the distinctive, intrinsic motivational force of norms is underappreciated, and that a better understanding of this aspect of them can help to make norm-based interventions more effective