Use dynamic normative messaging - more and more countries are using CA's!

Most people (outside of groups like XR!) follow social norms- what they think is "normal" behavior. These norms are therefore powerful obstacles to change.

Dynamic normative messages emphasise changing trends - encouraging people to become part of the new normal.

Changing norms is important as an intervention point because people generally follow what they think everyone else considers as ‘normal’ (e.g., eating meat or driving).

This means we can get stuck in our campaign to only motivate a few people, while the majority do not change. Even if we try to tell them that the new behavior is ‘normal’, their everyday experiences would probably indicate that this is untrue.

This is where using dynamic normative messages in our communication can help. The core idea is to create a ‘new’ normal that can coexist with the ‘old’ normal, which encourages people to change their behavior while still letting them feel ‘normal’.

An example of a dynamic normative message would be; “in the past few years, an increasing number of countries have started to use citizens assemblies and more are experimenting".

A static message (of the sort often used by campaign groups)and one that is mistakenly used), would look something like this; “Ireland uses citizens' assemblies".

The difference is, is that a dynamic message emphasises a new, changing trend. A static message states that the new trend has already occured, and it is this statement that can conflict with people’s experiences (and thus cause them to doubt that there is actually a new normal).

In the dynamic normative message, the trend should also refer to the group that our target audience can relate to. This will help put pressure on our target audience to change to the new normal, since they won’t want to feel like they’re being ‘left out’ of their peer group’s new behaviour or attitude. It will also make them feel that the change is possible since they see that other people that are similar to them, can make the change. People may also be inspired to become part of the ‘trend setters’, if they perceive the new normal as being better (e.g., ‘cooler’) than the old normal. It is important to note though, that for dynamic norms to work, the audience needs to perceive the change as a lasting trend. If a change is perceived as just another ‘fashion’ and that there will be a return to the old norm, then people will be less likely to adopt the new norm.

One of the interesting things about normative messaging, is that it can work without asking people to change. In other words, just providing the information about the norm shift is sufficient.