Jessica M. Nolan

The University of Scranton · Department of Psychology

Social norms interventions (SNIs) are a robust and widely used tool for addressing climate change. SNIs targeting second-order climate beliefs can be used to correct normative misperceptions, close the partisan gap, and increase support for climate policy. They can also be harnessed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by targeting behaviors such as...

One of the biggest challenges to sustainability is lack of public support for policies needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Across three studies, we explored how solution framing impacts public support for financially costly policies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Study 1 analyzed data from a statewide public opinion poll (N = 7...

The present study investigated the effects of participating in a jigsaw activity on individual college student performance. Participants were 126 students enrolled in a Social Psychology course in one of four different semesters. Each student was assigned to teach one of three topics to their peers and learned about the other two topics in their ji...

The influence of social norms on behavior has been a longstanding storyline within social psychology. Our 2007 Psychological Science publication presented a new rendition of this classic telling. The reported field experiment showed that social norms could be leveraged to promote residential energy conservation, but importantly, the descriptive nor...

In an attempt to solve large-scale environmental problems, government agencies often resort to formal sanctioning systems: market-based incentives or command-and-control regulations, to promote cooperation. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the presence of these formal sanctioning systems impacts informal sanctioning systems for envi...

In this article, a novel theoretical model, Jackson’s Return Potential Model (RPM), is applied to examine social norms for recycling. Unlike other theoretical models that emphasize the causal relationship between norms and behavior, Jackson’s RPM provides a conceptual model for thinking about the “normativeness” of recycling and other pro-environme...

Previous research has shown that social sanctions can catalyze and buttress conservation efforts; however, it is unclear how willing people are to confront (e.g., express verbal or nonverbal approval or disapproval) environmental transgressions. In the present study, willingness to sanction was measured with respect to recycling. Results showed tha...

Three studies are reported that examine the effects of valence on connectedness with nature. In Study 1, results showed that the implicit association test (IAT) effect is robust to the valence of the stimuli. Participants showed stronger self-nature than self-built associations, regardless of whether the stimuli were positively or negatively valenc...

Social norms marketing has become a widely used technique for promoting pro-social behaviors, however, little is known about the cognitive changes produced by these interventions. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the extent and durability of changes in normative beliefs following a one-shot social norms communication. Participant...

Social influence researchers have identified normative social influence as an effective behavioral strategy for addressing global climate change. However, strategies alone are useless if they are not adopted by energy outreach and education experts. In the present study we were interested in understanding and changing energy experts’ perceptions of...

Since May 24, 2006 millions of people have seen the movie “An Inconvenient Truth.” Several countries have even proposed using the film as an educational tool in school classrooms. However, it is not yet clear that the movie accomplishes its apparent goals of increasing knowledge and concern, and motivating people to reduce their greenhouse gas emis...

Radio and television offer promising media for addressing large-scale social problems. Unfortunately, very few mass-media messages have utilized social psychological theories of persuasion and influence. This article summarizes 2 studies that evaluated the effectiveness of a state-sponsored public service announcement aimed at reducing improper dis...

Jill Mann's writing, teaching, and scholarship have transformed our understanding of two distinct fields, medieval Latin and Middle English literature, as well as their intersection. Essays in this volume seek to honour this achievement by looking at entirely new aspects of these fields (the relationship of song to affect, the political valence of...

The present research investigated the persuasive impact and detectability of normative social influence. The first study surveyed 810 Californians about energy conservation and found that descriptive normative beliefs were more predictive of behavior than were other relevant beliefs, even though respondents rated such norms as least important in th...

Despite a long tradition of effectiveness in laboratory tests, normative messages have had mixed success in changing behavior in field contexts, with some studies showing boomerang effects. To test a theoretical account of this inconsistency, we conducted a field experiment in which normative messages were used to promote household energy conservat...