Overview
The primary goal of this document is to provide necessary information on the importance, nature and application of the theory of social norms to sanitation specialists. In order to promote positive social change with regard to many harmful collective patterns of behavior related to sanitation, understanding the theory of social norms is crucial.
This document aims to distill the insights from these joint collaborations into one place to aid WASH specialists aiming to bring about positive social change with regard to harmful collective patterns of behavior related to sanitation.
Why would the theory of social norms help complement existing best practices in WASH? We need to be able to explain and predict behavior. For example, we need to explain why people defecate in the open, and we need to be able to predict the conditions under which they would use latrines. In order to explain and predict behavior, the theory of social norms says that we must understand reasons for action. The theory presupposes that people do what they do because of their reasons for action; therefore, in order to explain and predict behavior, we must identify those reasons. Further, we must be able to differentiate behaviors, especially collective patterns of behavior. This is to say, not all collective patterns of behavior are due to the same reasons. Moreover, a single type of collective behavior – say, latrine maintenance – may be due to one kind of reason in one setting but to another kind of reason in a different setting. In order to understand the reasons that motivate collective behaviors, we must be guided by a specific model of behavior. Finally, we must be able to measure the behavior and the reasons for action. In order to explain and predict behavior, a model must have measurable components. The theory of social norms provides a specific model of behavior that has measurable components allowing us to identify reasons for action and to differentiate collective patterns of behavior. Identifying these reasons and diagnosing the collective pattern of behavior in a reliably measurable way is a key to successful interventions.
This is not to say that the social norms approach is a panacea that will solve all remaining difficulties in promoting positive social change with respect to sanitation-related behaviors. Social change is often difficult to achieve, and there are often a variety of factors that contribute to existing harmful practices – technological, legal, political, economic, and so on. The theory of social norms, though, can serve as an additional tool to bring about social change – in particular, by understanding what motivates people to engage in certain collective patterns of behavior, by providing new tools of measurement and diagnosis that reveal the drivers of behavior, and by synthesizing insights concerning how to bring about social change once one has reliably diagnosed and measured the drivers of behavior.
One aspect of sanitation that the theory of social norms brings out clearly is that communities are often facing a collective action problem whenever they move from open defecation to latrine use.
Collective action is often associated with a social dilemma: i.e., a situation in which what is in the best interest of each individual makes everyone worse off. For example, it can be in the “best interest” of each individual to defecate in the open – they do not have to spend money on building or maintaining latrines. But if every individual thinks that way and acts on it, then the community suffers a negative public health impact. Since sanitation requires the cooperation of all in a community in order to reap public benefits, social norms can become a powerful mechanism for solving the social dilemma that is embedded in collective action.