Cross-Level Theorizing in Health Communication: How Collective Norms and Media Use Affect Individual Attitudes and Behaviors

• In Event: Innovation and Integration in Health Communication Theory

Abstract

The “social” in social norms has often been neglected in how key norms-related concepts have been operationalized in the literature. We proposed and tested the hypothesis that collective norms would be associated with individual level attitudes and behaviors. This relationship was further hypothesized to vary by media use, such that the relationship between collective norms and individual attitudes and behaviors would be strong when media use was low, and vice versa. Data come from the 2016 Ethiopian and Tanzanian Demographic and Health Surveys (N = 6,907 and N = 4,083 in the two countries, respectively). Hypotheses, tested in the context of modern contraceptive use and tolerance for violence against women, were mostly supported, lending credence to the idea that mass media can serve as external agents of change to attenuate the impact of unhealthy collective norms on individual behaviors. Implications for public health campaigns are discussed.

Authors

• Erica Sedlander, The George Washington U Milken Institute of Public Health

• Rajiv N. Rimal, George Washington U