Social norms shape consumer behavior. However, it is not clear under what circumstances social norms are more versus less effective in doing so. This gap is addressed through an interdisciplinary meta-analysis examining the impact of social norms on consumer behavior across a wide array of contexts involving the purchase, consumption, use, and disposal of products and services, including socially approved (e.g., fruit consumption, donations) and disapproved (e.g., smoking, gambling) behaviors. Drawing from reactance theory and based on a cross-disciplinary data set of 250 effect sizes from research spanning 1978–2019 representing 112,478 respondents from 22 countries, the effects of five categories of moderators of the effectiveness of social norms on consumer behavior are examined: (1) target behavior characteristics, (2) communication factors, (3) consumer costs, (4) environmental factors, and (5) methodological characteristics. The findings suggest that while the effect of social norms on approved behavior is stable across time and cultures, their effect on disapproved behavior has grown over time and is stronger in survival and traditional cultures. Communications identifying specific organizations or close group members enhance compliance with social norms, as does the presence of monetary costs. The authors leverage their findings to offer managerial implications and a future research agenda for the field.

社会规范塑造消费者行为。然而，尚不清楚在什么情况下社会规范在这样做时更有效还是更无效。这一差距是通过跨学科元分析来解决的，该分析研究了社会规范对涉及购买、消费、使用和处置产品和服务的广泛背景下消费者行为的影响，包括社会认可的（例如，水果消费、捐赠) 和不赞成的（例如，吸烟、赌博）行为。借鉴电抗理论并基于 1978-2019 年研究的 250 个影响大小的跨学科数据集，代表来自 22 个国家的 112,478 名受访者，研究了五类社会规范对消费者行为有效性的调节因素的影响：（ 1）目标行为特征，（2）沟通因素，(3) 消费者成本，(4) 环境因素，以及 (5) 方法学特征。研究结果表明，虽然社会规范对认可行为的影响在不同时间和文化中是稳定的，但它们对不认可行为的影响随着时间的推移而增长，并且在生存和传统文化中更强。识别特定组织或亲密团体成员的沟通增强了对社会规范的遵守，货币成本的存在也是如此。作者利用他们的发现来提供该领域的管理意义和未来的研究议程。随着时间的推移，它们对不受欢迎的行为的影响越来越大，并且在生存和传统文化中更加强大。识别特定组织或亲密团体成员的沟通增强了对社会规范的遵守，货币成本的存在也是如此。作者利用他们的发现来提供该领域的管理意义和未来的研究议程。随着时间的推移，它们对不受欢迎的行为的影响越来越大，并且在生存和传统文化中更加强大。识别特定组织或亲密团体成员的沟通增强了对社会规范的遵守，货币成本的存在也是如此。作者利用他们的发现来提供该领域的管理意义和未来的研究议程。