Thou Shalt Not Steal: Effects of Normative Cues on Attitudes towards Theft

Judith de Groot, Wokje Abrahamse, Sarah Vincent

Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, Poole, UK.
Department of Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, Canada.

DOI: 10.4236/psych.2013.44062                

Abstract

In this study, we examine how normative cues influence attitudes towards theft. In a 3 × 2 × 2 within-subjects design (N = 120), we found that people had more negative attitudes towards theft when: 1) a higher value item was stolen than when a lower value item was stolen; 2) the theft took place in a public setting than when it took place in a private setting; and 3) the theft took place in a tidy rather than messy setting. Furthermore, our findings showed interaction effects between the value of a stolen item and 1) the cleanliness of the environment; and 2) the privateness of a setting, on attitudes towards theft. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Keywords

Normative Influence; Social Norms; Theft; Injunctive Norms; Descriptive Norms

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

[1]	Ajzen, I. (1988). Attitudes, personality, and behavior. Homewood, IL: Dorsey Press. doi:10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
[2]	Ames, D. R. (2004). Strategies for social inference: A similarity contingency model of projection and stereotyping in attribute prevalence estimates. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 573-585. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.87.5.573
[3]	Anker, A. E., Feeley, T. H., & Kim, H. (2010). Examining the attitude-behavior relationship in prosocial donation domains. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 40, 1293-1324. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2010.00619.x
[4]	Bateson, M., Nettle, D., & Roberts, G. (2006). Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting. Biology Letters, 23, 412-414. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2006.0509
[5]	Chen, C. C., & Chiu, S. F. (2009). The mediating role of job involvement in the relationship between job characteristics and organizational citizenship behavior. The Journal of Social Psychology, 149, 474-494. doi:10.3200/SOCP.149.4.474-494
[6]	Cialdini, R. B., Demaine, L. J., Sagarin, B. J., Barrett, D. W., Rhoads, K., & Winter, P. L. (2006). Managing social norms for persuasive impact. Social Influence, 1, 3-15. doi:10.1080/15534510500181459
[7]	Cialdini, R. B., Kallgren, C. A., & Reno, R. R. (1991). A focus theory of normative conduct: A theoretical refinement and reevaluation of the role of norms in human behavior. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 24, 201-234. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60330-5
[8]	Cialdini, R. B., Reno, R. R., & Kallgren, C. A. (1990). A focus theory of normative conduct: Recycling the concept of norms to reduce littering in public places. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 58, 1015-1026. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.58.6.1015
[9]	Crimestoppers (2010). Crime news: Latest crime statistics and surveys. Wallington: Crimestoppers. http://www.crimestoppers-uk.org/crime-prevention/latest-crime-statistics
[10]	Cromby, J., Brown, S. D., Gross, H., Locke, A., & Patterson, A. E. (2010). Constructing crime, enacting morality: Emotion, crime and anti-social behaviour in an inner-city Community. The British Journal of Criminology, 50, 873-895. doi:10.1093/bjc/azq029
[11]	Cronan, T. P., & Al-Rafee, S. (2008). Factors that influence the intention to pirate software and media. Journal of Business Ethics, 78, 527-545. doi:10.1007/s10551-007-9366-8
[12]	De Groot, J. I. M., & Steg, L. (2007). General beliefs and the theory of planned behavior: The role of environmental concerns in the TPB. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37, 1817-1836. doi:10.1111/j.1559-1816.2007.00239.x
[13]	De Groot, J. I. M., & Steg, L. (2009). Morality and prosocial behavior: The role of awareness, responsibility and norms in the norm activation model. Journal of Social Psychology, 149, 425-449. doi:10.3200/SOCP.149.4.425-449
[14]	Goel, S., Mason, W., & Watts, D. J. (2010). Real and perceived attitude agreement in social networks. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 611-621. doi:10.1037/a0020697
[15]	Henle, C. A., Reeve, C. L., & Pitts, V. E. (2010). Stealing time at work: Attitudes, social pressure, and perceived controls as predictors of time theft. Journal of Business Ethics, 94, 53-67. doi:10.1007/s10551-009-0249-z
[16]	Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (1968). Theft act 1968. London: The National Archives. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1968/60/contents
[17]	Huckfeldt, R., & Sprague, J. (1991). Discussant effects on vote choice: Intimacy, structure, and interdependence. The Journal of Politics, 53, 122-158. doi:10.2307/2131724
[18]	Hurd, N. M., Zimmerman, M. A., & Reischl, T. M. (2011). Role model behavior and youth violence: A study of positive and negative effects. Journal of Early Adolescence, 31, 323-354. doi:10.1177/0272431610363160
[19]	Jacobson, R. P., Mortensen, C. R., & Cialdini, R. B. (2011). Bodies obliged and unbound: Differentiated response tendencies for injunctive and descriptive social norms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 433-448. doi:10.1037/a0021470
[20]	Jasinskaja-Lahti, I., Mahonen, T. A., & Liebkind, K. (2011). Ingroup norms, intergroup contact and intergroup anxiety as predictors of the outgroup attitudes of majority and minority youth. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 35, 346-355. doi:10.1016/j.ijintrel.2010.06.001
[21]	Kallgren, C. A., Reno, R. R., & Cialdini, R. B. (2000). A focus theory of normative conduct: When norms do and do not affect behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 26, 1002-1012. doi:10.1177/01461672002610009
[22]	Keizer, K., Lindenberg, S., & Steg, L. (2008). The Spreading of Disorder. Science, 322, 1681-1685. doi:10.1126/science.1161405
[23]	Lapinski, M. K., & Rimal, R. N. (2005). An explication of social norms. Communication Theory, 15, 127-147. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2885.2005.tb00329.x
[24]	Mulder, L. B., Verboon, P., & De Cremer, D. (2008). Sanctions and moral judgments: The moderating effect of sanction severity and trust in authorities. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 255-269. doi:10.1002/ejsp.506
[25]	Nesdale, D., & Lawson, M. J. (2011). Social groups and children’s intergroup attitudes: Can school norms moderate the effects of social group norms? Child Development, 82, 1594-1606. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8624.2011.01637.x
[26]	Nikitas, A., Avineri, E., & Parkhurst, G. (2011). Older people’s attitudes to road charging: Are they distinctive and what are the implications for policy? Transportation Planning and Technology, 34, 87-108. doi:10.1080/03081060.2011.530831
[27]	Piazza, J., Bering, J. M., & Ingram, G. (2011). Princess Alice is watching you: Children’s belief in an invisible person inhibits cheating. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 109, 311-320. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2011.02.003
[28]	Posthuma, R. A., & Dworkin, J. B. (2000). A behavioural theory of arbitrator acceptability. International Journal of Conflict Management, 11, 249-266. doi:10.1108/eb022842
[29]	Research Development Statistics (RDS) (2011). Crime in England and Wales: Quarterly update to September 2010. London: Home Office. http://rds.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/whatsnew1.html
[30]	Reno, R. R., Cialdini, R. B., & Kallgren, C. A. (1993). The transsituational influence of social norms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 104-112. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.64.1.104
[31]	Schultz, P. W., Khazian, A. M., & Zaleski, A. C. (2008). Using normative social influence to promote conservation among hotel guests. Social Influence, 3, 4-23. doi:10.1080/15534510701755614
[32]	Schultz, P. W., & Tabanico, J. J. (2009). Criminal beware: A social norms perspective on posting public warning signs. Criminology, 47, 1201-1222. doi:10.1111/j.1745-9125.2009.00173.x
[33]	Shariff, A. F., & Norenzayan, A. (2007). God is watching you: Priming God concepts increases prosocial behavior in an anonymous economic game. Psychological Science, 18, 803-809. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01983.x
[34]	Terrade, F., Pasquier, H., Reerinck-Boulanger, J., Guingouain, G., & Somat, A. (2009). L’acceptabilité sociale: La prise en compte des determinants sociaux dans l’analse de l’acceptabilité des systems technologiques. Le Travail Humain: A Bilingual and Multi-Disciplinary Journal in Human Factors, 72, 383-395. doi:10.3917/th.724.0383
[35]	Tonglet, M. (2002). Consumer misbehavior: An exploratory study of shoplifting. Journal of Consumer Behavior, 1, 336-354. doi:10.1002/cb.79
[36]	Visser, P. S., & Mirabile, P. R. (2004). Attitudes in the social context: The impact of social network composition on individual level attitude strength. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 87, 779-795. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.87.6.779
[37]	Wang, C., Chen. C., Yang, S., & Farn, C. (2009). Pirate or buy? The moderating effect of idolatry. Journal of Business Ethics, 90, 81-93. doi:10.1007/s10551-009-0027-y
[38]	Wenzel, M. (2004). The social side of sanctions: Personal and social norms as moderators of deterrence. Law and Human Behaviour, 28, 547-567. doi:10.1023/B:LAHU.0000046433.57588.71