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Preventing harassment and increasing group participation through social norms in 2,190 online science discussions.

ABSTRACT: Theories of human behavior suggest that people's decisions to join a group and their subsequent behavior are influenced by perceptions of what is socially normative. In online discussions, where unruly, harassing behavior is common, displaying community rules could reduce concerns about harassment that prevent people from joining while also influencing the behavior of those who do participate. An experiment tested these theories by randomizing announcements of community rules to large-scale online conversations in a science-discussion community with 13 million subscribers. Compared with discussions with no mention of community expectations, displaying the rules increased newcomer rule compliance by >8 percentage points and increased the participation rate of newcomers in discussions by 70% on average. Making community norms visible prevented unruly and harassing conversations by influencing how people behaved within the conversation and also by influencing who chose to join.

SUBMITTER: Matias JN

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6525516 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Preventing harassment and increasing group participation through social norms in 2,190 online science discussions.

Matias J Nathan JN

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20190429 20

Theories of human behavior suggest that people's decisions to join a group and their subsequent behavior are influenced by perceptions of what is socially normative. In online discussions, where unruly, harassing behavior is common, displaying community rules could reduce concerns about harassment that prevent people from joining while also influencing the behavior of those who do participate. An experiment tested these theories by randomizing announcements of community rules to large-scale onli ...[more]

PMID: 31036646

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Project description:Sexual harassment (SH) is a form of gender-based violence (GBV) that negatively impacts women's physical, mental, social, and financial well-being. Although SH is a global phenomenon, it also is a contextualized one, with local and institutional norms influencing the ways in which harassment behavior manifests. As more women attend institutions of higher education in Jordan, these women are at increased risk of experiencing SH in university settings, with potential implications for their health and future employment. Social norms theory, which examines the informal rules governing individual behavior within groups, has been a useful framework for understanding and developing interventions against GBV globally. We sought to apply a social-norms lens to the understanding and prevention of SH at a Jordanian university. To gain a comprehensive and nuanced picture of social norms surrounding SH, we collected qualitative data using three complementary methods: focus group discussions (n = 6) with male and female students (n = 33); key informant interviews with staff and faculty (n = 5); and a public, participatory event to elicit anonymous short responses from students (n = 317). Using this data, we created a codebook incorporating social-norms components and emergent themes. As perceived by participants, SH was unacceptable yet common, characterized as a weak norm primarily because negative sanctioning of harassers was unlikely. Distal norms related to gender and tribal affiliation served to weaken further norms against SH by blaming the victim, preventing reporting, discouraging bystander intervention, and/or protecting the perpetrator. The complexity of the normative environment surrounding SH perpetration will necessitate the use of targeted, parallel approaches to change harmful norms. Strengthening weak norms against SH will require increasing the likelihood of sanctions, by revising university policies and procedures to increase accountability, increasing the acceptability of bystander intervention and reporting, and fostering tribal investment in sanctioning members who harass women. Creating dialogue that emphasizes the harmful nature of SH behaviors and safe spaces to practice positive masculinity also may be an effective strategy to change how male students interact in the presence of peers. Any social norms change intervention will need to consider the various reference groups that dictate and enforce norms surrounding SH.

Project description:BackgroundWith continued challenges to the timeline for polio transmission interruption in Pakistan, including COVID-19, there is a risk of oral polio vaccine campaign fatigue among caregivers of young children. Renewed efforts to minimize oral polio vaccine acceptance erosion may be needed. This study examines the possible role of social norms in protecting against acceptance erosion and the role of vaccinators in promoting these social norms.MethodsData were analyzed from a poll conducted by local interview teams between February 23 and April 5, 2016, among 4,070 parents and other caregivers of children under age 5 living in areas at high-risk for polio transmission in Pakistan. The sample was drawn via a stratified multistage cluster design utilizing random route methods at the household level. We calculated the prevalence of subjective and descriptive social norms around vaccine acceptance; vaccine acceptance and commitment to vaccinate in future; and experiences and views of polio vaccinators across the population. We examined the relationship between these social norms and vaccination behaviors as well as the relationship between experiences with and views of vaccinators and social norms using uncontrolled comparisons (t-tests of proportion) and logistic repressions to control for demographics.ResultsBoth descriptive and subjective positive social norms were associated with vaccine acceptance and future commitment. Positive experiences with and views of vaccinators (trust, perceived technical knowledge, compassion, and overall pleasantness of the interaction) were associated with both descriptive and subjective positive social norms.ConclusionsThese data support the idea that positive social norms could be protective against erosion of oral polio vaccine acceptance and that positive experiences with, and views of, vaccinators could help promote these positive social norms. Creative community engagement efforts may be able to leverage positive experiences with vaccinators to help foster social norms and protect against the risk of acceptance erosion.

Dataset Information

Preventing harassment and increasing group participation through social norms in 2,190 online science discussions.

Publications

Preventing harassment and increasing group participation through social norms in 2,190 online science discussions.

Similar Datasets

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