Trending Norms: A Lever for Encouraging Behaviors Performed by the Minority

Abstract

If many people currently engage in a behavior, others are likely to follow suit. The current article extends research on these descriptive norms to examine the unique effect of trending norms: norms in which the number of people engaging in a behavior is increasing—and even if this is only among a minority of people: trending minority norms. The current research shows people conform more to these trending minority norms than a minority norm alone, or a no norm control condition—even though the norms addressed behaviors that differed from the target behavior. This demonstrates a distinct effect of trends and a strategy for leveraging normative information to increase conformity to behaviors not yet performed by a majority. Findings support that this increased conformity emerges because people predict the increase in prevalence will continue. An internal meta-analysis examining all data we collected on this topic supports these conclusions.