社会与工程心理学研究室知识库

国人的肥胖问题日益严峻。走路运动预防肥胖、益于健康，然而现实生活中大多数人都无法达到医生推荐的走路步数。描述性社会规范己被广泛应用于助推健康行为，包括促进走路行为。但以往研究结果发现社会规范的效应并不稳定，需要进一步探究其适用条件。随着智能手机的发展和普及，己有大量手机应用程序尝试利进行健康行为干预，智能手机中社交媒体的流行也为社会规范的传播提供了新渠道。但在智能手机平台上社会规范是否能够及如何改变人们的走路行为，目前尚缺乏相关研究进行探讨并提供实证依据。因此，本研究以低运动水平大学生为主要研究对象，借助微信平台，通过现场追踪研究考察了社交网络中的描述性社会规范对走路行为的影响，并检验了群体一致性和性别对社会规范有效性的调节作用，试图在丰富社会规范的心理机制的同时，探索描述性社会规范促进走路运动的最佳方式。研究1考察了社会规范效应促进走路行为的作用，以及运动水平一致性对其的调节作用。研究1在春季进行，招募了对照组和高/低运动水平一致性组共三组被试，通过在微信群中发布排行榜操纵两个实验组的描述性社会规范认知。结果发现描述性社会规范可促进走路行为，且运动水平一致性对社会规范具有调节作用，且具有性别差异:当运动水平一致性高时，社会规范可促进被试走路行为，且该效应对女性更强，持续时间更长。研究2探讨了性别一致性对描述性社会规范效应促进走路运动的调节作用。研究2在秋冬季进行，招募了对照组和高/低性别一致性组共三组被试，通过在微信群中发布排行榜操纵两个实验组的描述性社会规范认知。结果发现，无论性别一致性高或低，描述性社会规范均可预防秋季男性走路行为降低的现象。研究3通过小元分析对研究1和研究2的结果进行了综合检验，结果发现社交媒体所传递的描述性社会规范具有走路运动促进效应，并且群体一致性和性别是描述性社会规范的重要调节因素:在高群体一致性时，描述性社会规范可促进走路运动;且社会规范对男性走路的作用好于自我监控，但对女性，描述性社会规范对走路运动的作用与自我监控没有差异。本研究结果完善了描述性社会规范在中国社会背景中的检验，细化了其适用情境，回答了描述性社会规范是否可以促进走路行为，以及在什么情况下、对什么人有效这一问题，同时为优化智能手机运动类应用程序的设计提供了科学依据。

Obesity is becoming increasingly prevalent in China. Although people are aware of the health benefits of walking, most people cannot meet the recommended daily walking criterion. Descriptive social norms have been widely applied to nudge health behavior, including walking behavior. However, previous research shows that the effects of social norms are unstable. Further exploration is needed to confine the conditions under which social norms could be applied. With the development and popularization of smartphones, a huge number of smartphone applications aim to intervene health behavior. The popularity of smartphone social networking applications provides a new channel to spread social norms. However, whether and how social norms on smartphones affect human behavior are still lack adequate exploration and evidence. To answer these questions, this longitudinal field research utilized the WeChat platform to investigate the effects of descriptive social norms on walking behavior and the moderating effects of group identity and gender, with physically inactive college students as the target population. We aim to contribute to the mechanisms of descriptive social norms and explore the most effective way to apply descriptive social norms to promote walking. Study 1 tested whether descriptive social norms could promote walking and whether one feature of group identity, that is, consistency of physical activity level, has any moderating effect. Conducted in the spring, Study 1 recruited three groups of participants: control group, high consistency of physical activity level group, and low consistency of physical activity level group. Descriptive social norms were conveyed by presenting a daily ranking list of walking steps in the WeChat groups. Results verified the effect of descriptive social norms on promoting walking behavior and their moderating effects on the consistency of physical activity level. Descriptive social norms were effective in promoting women's walking behavior, and the effect existed after the withdrawal of the intervention. Study 2 explored the moderating effect of another feature of group identity, that is, gender consistency, on descriptive social norms to promote walking. Conducted in the fall, Study 2 recruited three groups of participants: control group, high level of gender consistency group, and low level of gender consistency group. The manipulation was the same as that in Study 1 .Results showed that descriptive social norms could prevent men's walking behavior from decreasing in the fall. Study 3 involved a mini meta-analysis on the effects of descriptive social norms and group identity. Results proved that descriptive social norms were effective in promoting walking and that group identity and gender were two important moderators. When the level of consistency was high, descriptive social norms were effective in promoting walking. For men, descriptive social norms were more effective than self-monitoring; such difference was not observed for women. This research provided evidence for the effects of descriptive social norms in China and narrowed down the conditions to which they could be applied. We answered three questions: whether descriptive social norms are effective, for whom they are effective, and under what conditions they are effective. This research provides scientific guidance to optimize the design of sports features on smartphones.