How could use social norms and conformity to promote sustainable behavior on campus or in town?

Social norms are another key determinant of behavior. People are likely to do what they

see other people doing. Michel-Guillou and Moser (2006), for example, found that French

farmers who used sustainable practices were influenced more by social norms than by their own

environmental awareness. Such conformity is often ratio,nal. Other people may have knowledge

that we ourselves lack; by imitating the behaviors of others with more experience, we take

advantage of their knowledge. If my neighbor establishes a backyard wildlife habitat, I not only

learn that it is a possible and perhaps acceptable thing to do, I also get procedural information

about how to do it. In addition, human society rewards conformity. Because we tend to like

people who behave in the same way we do and to dislike those who deviate, social support is

more available to those who conform than to those who do not.