The sound of silence: The importance of bystander support for confronters in the prevention of norm erosion

We examined how supportive and non-supportive bystander reactions to a confronter impacted the perceived strength of a prosocial norm among participants and their behavioural intentions. We find that when bystanders explicitly supported the confronter against the rule breaker, the norm was perceived as stronger-and sometimes, compliance intentions were higher-than when bystanders did not respond to the confronter. A mini meta-analysis across the three studies reveals that the effect of bystander support on perceived norm strength is large and robust. Our work demonstrates that for the prevention of norm erosion, confrontations benefit greatly from being explicitly supported by bystanders.PMID:38100197 | DOI:10.1111/bjso.12709

Source: The British Journal of Social Psychology - December 15, 2023 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Anna S C Tirion Laetitia B Mulder Tim Kurz Namkje Koudenburg Annayah M B Prosser Paul Bain Jan Willem Bolderdijk Source Type: research