Des personnes traitées injustement, des biens culturels en danger, la discrimination contre les minorités, l’harcèlement sexuel, l'intimidation et la violence sont seulement quelques comportements incivils et immoraux que nous pouvons témoigner dans les lieux publics. Quelle est notre réaction immédiate ? La présente thèse a examiné les caractéristiques de la personnalité des individus qui expriment leur désaccord et confrontent les auteurs des comportements incivils ou immoraux (Chapitre 1 & Chapitre 2). Nous avons vérifié si ceux qui interviennent ont tendance à être des « râleurs rancuniers » ou des « leaders bien adaptés ». Les deux premières études mesures des nombreuses différences individuelles qui seraient directement impliquées dans la réaction du témoin. Les résultats ont clairement confirmé l'hypothèse du « leader bien adapté ». La tendance des participants à confronter les transgresseurs est en corrélation positive avec la responsabilité sociale, l'acceptation sociale, l'indépendance, la régulation des émotions, la persistance, l'auto-déterminisme, l'âge et le salaire mensuel, mais pas avec l’agressivité. Trois études supplémentaires confirment l'hypothèse du "leader bien ajusté». Altruisme, outrage moral, implication personnelle, libéralisme politique et extraversion sont en relation avec les réactions auto déclarées des gens. Les données ne soutiennent pas l'idée que la haute estime de soi ou le fait d'être agressif serait nécessaire pour faire face à l'auteur d'un comportement incivil/immoral. Nous discutons des implications de ces résultats pour la perpétuation et le changement des normes sociales. Nous avons également examiné l'effet de la distance sociale témoin-transgresseur sur la tendance du témoin à confronter le transgresseur au sujet de son comportement (Chapitre 3). Nous avons présenté 26 comportements incivils et immoraux aux collégiens, lycéens et étudiants à l’université en leur demandant d'indiquer comment ils réagiraient s’ils devaient assister à chacun de ces comportements. Nous avons manipulé la relation avec le transgresseur, qui a été décrit comme soit un ami, soit une connaissance, soit un étranger pour le témoin. Les résultats suggère qu’une relation étroite entre le témoin et l'auteur du comportement incivil/immoral, agrandi la probabilité que le témoin exprime son désaccord. Les résultats parlent du rôle des relations étroites dans la perpétuation des normes sociales. Ils suggèrent également des moyens de réduire les comportements antisociaux dans plusieurs milieux sociaux, scolaires et organisationnels. / People treated unfairly, cultural assets in danger, discrimination against minorities, sexual harassment, bullying and violence are just a few uncivil and immoral behaviors that we can witness in public settings. What is our immediate reaction? The present research examined the personality characteristics of individuals who "speakup" and confront perpetrators of uncivil or immoral behaviors (Chapter 1 & Chapter 2). We tested whether those who intervene tend to be "bitter complainers" or "well-adjusted leaders".The first two studies, measured numerous individual differences that are directly implicated in bystander’s intervention. The results clearly confirmed the well-adjusted leader hypothesis. Participants' self-reported tendency to confront perpetrators correlated positively with social responsibility, acceptance by peers, independent self-construal, emotion regulation, persistence, self-directedness, age, and monthly salary, but not with aggressiveness. Three additional studies provide support for the "well-adjusted leader" hypothesis. Altruism, moral outrage, personal implication, political liberalism, and extraversion were positively related to people's self-reported reactions. The data provided no support for the idea that high self esteemor being aggressive is necessary to confront the perpetrator of an uncivil/immoral behavior. We discuss the implications of these findings for the perpetuation and change of social norms. We also examined the effect of social distance between a bystander and the perpetrator of an uncivil/immoral behavior on the bystander's tendency to "speak up" and confront the perpetrator about his/her behavior (Chapter 3). We presented 26 uncivil and immoral behaviors to middle schoolers, high schoolers and university students and asked them to indicate how they would react if they were to witness each of the behaviors. We manipulated the relationship to the perpetrator who was described as a friend, an acquaintance, or a stranger. Results showed that smaller the social distance between the bystander and the perpetrator of the uncivil/immoral behavior the greater the self-reported likelihood that the bystander will express his/her disapproval to the perpetrator. The findings speak to the role of close relationships in the perpetuation of social norms. They also suggest ways to curb antisocial behaviors in a variety of school and organizational settings.

環保這類型的公益議題，其資源並不如一般企業或是營利單位來的充裕，因此我們更應該重視環保議題之廣告支出所能獲得的效益，希望能在有限的廣告預算之下，取得最佳的效果，促成本研究選擇環保議題作為廣告效果探討主軸的想法。 過去Griskevicius等人對於情緒效果的研究，確實指出消費者所帶有的不同情緒確實對於廣告的效果有所影響。而本研究認為，消費者在做出選購決策時候，其廣告效果除了受到情緒的影響之外，消費者在做出決策當下所處的環境是公開的還是私人的也十分重要。 此外，雖然環保議題逐漸受到重視，但在每個不同的國家、社會之中，其受重視的程度並不相同，因此會存在不同的環保重視程度，而本研究認為這種對環保有著不同重視程度的現象是屬於一種社會規範的概念，期也會影響廣告的效果。 因此根據以上想法，本研究決定以下四個主要研究問題： (一) 探討情緒對於支持環保程度的影響。 (二) 探討決策情境對於支持環保程度的影響。 (三) 探討社會規範對於支持環保程度的影響。 (四) 探討情緒、決策情境以及社會規範之間對於支持環保程度的交互作用效果。 本研究對於以上四個主要研究問題，發展了六個主要假設，透過實驗方法，得到以下五大結論。 1. 若是選擇在網路、電視這類型比較屬於私人環境的媒介播放廣告，或者消費者可以在比較隱私的環境之作出決策的時候，應該選擇能夠喚起觀眾浪漫渴望的愛情片時段來撥放這類廣告，較為有效。 2. 若是當廣告主選擇在公開環境的資訊媒介撥放廣告，或者是消費者的決策與行為會被大眾一同檢視之時，則應該選擇能夠喚起消費者的恐懼情緒的恐怖片時段來撥放廣告。 3. 社會規範對於消費者的行為影響效果顯著，因此在進行環保廣告的動作前，應先透過描述性規範的使用，告知消費者社會中的其他人都是重視環保的。 4. 在私人環境之下，當整體社會中所存在的社會規範是重視環保之時，環保廣告時段的選擇，就應該選在能夠喚起浪漫渴望的愛情片時段，如此才能夠強化廣告的效果。 5. 若是社會中所普遍存在的社會規範是不重視環保的，應該要先透過描述性規範來改變消費者心中所認知的社會規範方向，再進行進一步的環保教育，如此才能收到良好的環保教育效果。 / The public welfare issue such as environmental protection doesn’t have rich resources. We have to pay more attentions on the efficiency of environmental protection advertisement. Griskevicius already indicate that the consumers with different emotions will affect the efficiency of the advertisement. Besides the emotion issue, we believe that different decision- making situations will also affect the efficiency of the advertisement. Finally, we believe “social norms” is another factor which affect the efficiency of the advertisement. Based on the above discussion, we propose four major research questions: 1.To discuss how the emotions affect the degree of support for environmental protection. 2.To discuss how the decision-making situations affect the degree of support for environmental protection. 3.To discuss how the social norms affect the degree of support for environmental protection. 4.To discuss the interactive effects of emotions, decision-making situations and social norms to the degree of support for environmental protection. We use the experimental methods and proposed six hypotheses to find out the answer of the above three research questions. Finally, we got five conclusions: 1.If we want to broadcast the ads on a private media, such as internet and TV channels, we should do this during romantic movie. It will be more efficiency. 2.If we want to broadcast the ads on public media, we should choose the horror movie hours. It will be more efficiency. 3.Social norms have a significant influence on the efficiency of the ads. Before we broadcast the ads, we should use the descriptive norms to educate the consumers that the people in the society are all pay attention to the environmental protection issues. 4.Under the private situation and the environmentally friendly society, we should choose the romance movie hours to broadcast our ads. It will be more efficiency. 5.If we want to broadcast the environmental protection ads in a society which is not environmentally friendly, we should use the descriptive norms to educate the people that the people are all very care about the environmental issues.

Non-compliance with visitor regulations in national parks can have an impact on park conservation and the experience of other park visitors. Park management in Pacific Rim National Park Reserve located on the west coast of British Columbia, Canada is challenged by visitors’ non-compliant behaviour concerning regulations to keep dogs on the leash in the park. Dogs that run free (off-leash) on the beaches of the park disturb migratory shorebirds, and have the potential to habituate wolves to regard dogs as objects of prey. This study investigates why many visitors opt for non-compliance with regulations aimed at conservation. The goal of the study is to contribute new insights that may help park management find workable solutions to deliver the ‘dual mandate’ of managing protected areas both, for conservation and for nature-based tourism. The study is grounded within the context of Lefebvre’s (1991) notions of the production of space, and recent work in animal geography that addresses the changing role of our canine companions in modern society. The methodology combines qualitative and quantitative research applying Fishbein & Ajzen’s (2010) theory of planned behaviour (TPB). The research is presented using a journal format, which unavoidably implies some repetition of information but allows for the different sections to be read as stand-alone documents. The thesis starts with an introductory chapter. This is followed by a book chapter published in Domesticated Animals & Leisure (Carr, 2015 in press) that reports highlights from qualitative research exploring why park visitors appear reluctant to comply with on-leash rules. Results reveal the beach as a contested space, driven by a strong off-leash social norm. Chapter Three is a journal article format paper that reports on a quantitative survey based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) to identify beliefs that underlie visitor behaviour. Results indicate that habit, with respect to dog leashing when at home and on previous visits to the park, appear to impact the ability of the model to predict future behaviour. Chapter Four is a second journal article format paper where it is suggested that ambivalence, the presence of conflicting behavioural beliefs, influences the relation between behavioural beliefs and attitudes in the TPB, resulting in non-compliance behaviour. A concluding chapter summarizes how results presented in the three main chapters contribute to the body of knowledge on animal geography, compliance and research using the TPB, as well as suggesting techniques that park staff should consider for managing visitor behaviour under situations of apparent non-compliance. / Graduate

With the increased use of online communication in our everyday lives, there is a growing need to understand social influence in such settings. The current research posits that online social norms can influence readers‟ anti-social and pro-social behaviours online, specifically individual expressions of prejudice. Participants read an online article proposing an increase to international student scholarship funding, then were randomly placed in one of two normative conditions where they read Anti-Prejudiced or Pro-Prejudiced comments allegedly placed by other users. Participants then left their own comments before completing a self-report prejudice questionnaire and an implicit association test (IAT). Social norms created by the fictitious comments influenced respondents to comment with more or less bigoted sentiments aligned with the fictitious social norm. Participants reading prejudiced online comments showed increased implicit and explicit prejudice, while those reading anti-prejudiced online comments showed the reverse. Participants‟ internal and external motivations to control prejudice were also measured and hypothesised to moderate the effects of social norms on bias expressions. However, this hypothesis was unsupported with participants‟ internal and external motivations to control prejudice inconsistently moderating the effects of the social norm on their prejudice expressions. These findings suggest possible avenues for social change in online environments, and criteria to help establish more positive online social norms.

This research program aimed to identify the factors that influence the Voluntary Donation payment decision in a cohort of parents (N = 250) with a child (or children) at a New Zealand state school. A voluntary donation is a charitable contribution to the running of the school collected from the parents of the school’s students. A survey questionnaire was constructed to examine the attitudes parents hold towards the voluntary donation funding system, the current New Zealand Government and the school the respondent’s child attends. The parents were ‘naturally’ separated into two conditions based on their last voluntary donation payment decision – Paid versus Not Paid – to compare the differences in attitudes on the various statements from the survey and their demographic composition. The results revealed that payment decision was positively correlated with educational achievement, annual household income and age. Individual contributions exhibited strong positive relationships with beliefs about the contributions of others, which was consistent with previous public goods field experiments. The research extended the existing public goods research by examining the social norms of voluntary donation behaviour and assimilating the results with theories of altruism, conditional cooperation and reciprocity. The strongest overall contribution to the prediction of payment decision was parents’ attitudes towards the current Government and the voluntary donation funding system. The results identified that pressures existed in the voluntary donation environment, a result most prevalent in high decile schools. Additionally, a marginal level of comprehension of the voluntary donations characterised the majority of respondents. Overall, the research found that the best predictor of contribution was attitudes towards the voluntary donation funding system.

La littérature enseigne que certaines normes sont ancrées dans l’utilité, d’autres dans la désirabilité. Pour les normes enracinées dans l’utilité, de nombreuses recherches expérimentales ont étudié la valorisation qu’engendre leur conformité et quelques recherches ont montré une absence de dévalorisation en cas de non-conformité. En revanche, pour les normes ancrées dans la désirabilité, les chercheurs se sont principalement intéressés à la dévalorisation induite par leur non-conformité. Nous faisons l’hypothèse principale que la conformité aux normes ancrées dans l’utilité amènerait essentiellement à se faire valoriser socialement, tandis que celles enracinées dans la désirabilité permettraient surtout de ne pas se faire dévaloriser socialement. Pour les normes ancrées dans l’utilité, nous avons choisi d’étudier les normes d’internalité et d’autosuffisance, connues pour leur ancrage dans l’utilité, ainsi que les comportements consciencieux, dont nos résultats semblent montrer qu’ils constitueraient une norme sociale ancrée dans l’utilité. Sept recherches empiriques ont montré que ces normes, liées à l’utilité, ont plus à voir avec la valorisation que la dévalorisation. Pour les normes enracinées dans la désirabilité, nous avons sélectionné les normes comportementales de politesse et de respect de l’environnement. Quatre autres études expérimentales corroborent que ces normes, liées à la désirabilité, ont plus à voir avec la dévalorisation que la valorisation. Notre hypothèse principale a donc bien été vérifiée. / Literature teaches us that certain norms are anchored in utility, others in desirability. For norms rooted in utility, many experimental studies have examined the valuation engendered by their compliance and some research has shown a lack of depreciation in case of non- compliance. In contrast, for norms rooted in desirability, researchers are primarily interested in the devaluation caused by their non-compliance. We make the main hypothesis that compliance with the norms embedded in utility leads us to be essentially socially valued, while those norms embedded in desirability would certainly allow us not to be socially devalued. For norms anchored in utility, we chose to study the norms of internality and self-sufficiency, known for their anchorage in utility, as well as conscientious behaviors which as our results suggest, constitute a social norm anchored in utility. Seven empirical researches have shown that these norms related to utility have more to do with valuation than devaluation. For norms rooted in desirability, we selected the behavioral norms of politeness and respect for the environment. Four other experimental studies support the theory that these norms related to the desirability have more to do with devaluation that valuation. Our main hypothesis has thus been verified.

There has been a mixed public response on social media toward Saudi Vision 2030, which could threaten public support of its implementation. This research investigated local tensions between social, religious, political, and economic values concerning the Saudi Vision 2030 plan, with a view to understanding the opportunities and challenges of social and cultural change within an evolving Saudi society. In this study, Twitter activity is treated as a societal mirror that reflects some of the perceptions regarding the transformations taking place within Saudi society. Both a case study informed by tweets sampled from Saudi Arabia and Vision 2030 related documentation explored how the current public social media discourse reflects existing social, religious, and cultural tensions concerning the government-proposed Vision 2030. This study drew on theoretical framework informed by Durkheim’s and Ibn Khaldun’s theory of social change, Merton’s strain theory, and Luhmann’s Social System Theory, to explore social, political, economic, and religious tensions found within the interactions of Twitter users around projects and events implemented or inspired by Vision 2030. An application programming interface (API) was used to retrieve Twitter posts, while a thematic analysis was applied to published documents related to Vision 2030 to identify Saudi society’s challenges to the implementation of the Vision. The study found that within Saudi society, Vision 2030 had an impact upon the normative disorder already taking place due to the rapid changes brought about by the Vision. Specifically, the study highlighted the link between ambiguous, clear, or absent norms, and a person’s pre-existing background knowledge. Social and religious group norms were more ambitious than clear, whereas economic group norms tended to be clearer. Finally, the study found that over time, through public debates, norms moved from an ambiguous and absent stage and became increasingly well-defined. The study showed that Saudi society, as a result of Vision 2030, is experiencing a normative disorder.

Submitted by Cristiane Oliveira (cristiane.oliveira@fgv.br) on 2011-05-24T14:26:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 71060100683.pdf: 1872840 bytes, checksum: 2bd37cd9209f5335da85a17a5be67de1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel(gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2011-05-24T14:33:14Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 71060100683.pdf: 1872840 bytes, checksum: 2bd37cd9209f5335da85a17a5be67de1 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Gisele Isaura Hannickel(gisele.hannickel@fgv.br) on 2011-05-24T14:37:18Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 71060100683.pdf: 1872840 bytes, checksum: 2bd37cd9209f5335da85a17a5be67de1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-05-24T15:11:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 71060100683.pdf: 1872840 bytes, checksum: 2bd37cd9209f5335da85a17a5be67de1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-04 / Este trabalho teve o principal objetivo de contribuir para o entendimento do contexto social que circunda empreendedores inovadores brasileiros e espanhóis que emergem em seus próprios países de origem, procurando mapear e entender relações sociais relevantes estabelecidas durante o delicado período de emergência de seus empreendimentos no final do século XX e começo do XXI. Autores alinhados com o pensamento da sociologia econômica foram utilizados como referência para a determinação das perguntas de pesquisa, que provocaram a realização de um estudo comparativo entre empreendedores finalistas de um mesmo prêmio atribuído a empreendedores inovadores brasileiros e espanhóis. No total, 19 empreendedores oriundos de setores emparelhados em ambos os países foram entrevistados e documentos sobre eles e seus empreendimentos foram levantados, possibilitando verificar, entre outras coisas, a influência relativamente homogênea do contexto social de ambos os países no período de emergência de empreendimentos fundados por empreendedores advindos de classes sociais mais elevadas destas sociedades, com especial ênfase nas complicadas características do padrão de financiamento dos empreendimentos, no aumento consistente do apoio social e público ao empreendedorismo, no elevado envolvimento emocional que os empreendedores estabelecem com seus empreendimentos e no peculiar papel das relações de confiança construídos entre os empreendedores, seus sócios e funcionários. / This study had the main objective to contribute to the understanding of the social context that surrounded the innovative Brazilian and Spanish entrepreneurs that emerged in their own countries of origin, seeking to map and understand relevant social relations established during the delicate period of emergence of their ventures in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, focusing specifically on the role that organizations and social norms had over this period. Authors aligned with the thinking of economic sociology were used as reference for the determination of research questions, which led to the execution of a comparative study between entrepreneur finalists of the same award given to innovative Brazilian and Spanish entrepreneurs. A total of 19 entrepreneurs coming from sectors paired in the countries were interviewed and documents about them and their ventures were studied, making it possible to verify, among other things, the relatively homogeneous influence of the social context of both countries during the emergence of ventures founded by entrepreneurs coming from higher social classes, with particular emphasis on the complicated standards of financing options, on the consistent increase in social and public support to entrepreneurship, in the high emotional involvement that entrepreneurs establish with their ventures and in the peculiar role that trust play among entrepreneurs, their partners and employees.

This study examines the myth of the surrogate power of canonicity by exposing the condition of liminality of the Zimbabwean short story genre within African literary canon. Building on the hypothesis that canonisation distorts literature the study postulates that literary canon produce predictable biases in construing the position of the short story. It fossilises and condenses the marginal genres to the extent that the existing canon repertoire hardly recognises them. The peripheral but de facto canon of the short story genre entertains a strong relationship of heteronomy to the mainstream/central canon. This thesis studies this relationship which determines canon formation within the African literary systems. It challenges the prevailing status quo in which the short story is polarised against other literary modes. The polarity creates a charged diametric force between the presumed canonical genres and the supposedly non-canonical short story mess. What lacks in this equation of conflicts is a sense of revival, reformation and continuity of the short story canon. The marginality of the short story canon is predicated on factors external to the genre itself, such as the influence of colonial institutions, collegiate institutions and publishers on writers. These factors pervade the dialectics of canonical marginality of the genre. The study, which argues that there is no unanimity on theory of canon, proposes Africulture, as both a theory and praxis of Afrocentricity, to function as an arbiter of short story literary reputation and consecration. The research reveres the autonomous value of African story-telling tradition which withstood the test and movement of time, in the process, surviving not only the historical-cum-cultural threat of colonial loss and canonical displacement, but also the throes and will power of new media and digital technologies. The ascendancy of the electronic short story genre to canonical status remains questionable. Critical controversies abound about the canonicity of electronic literature. The study employs Technauriture as a theoretical model for rethinking the transcendence of the electronic short story canon. The study concludes that, by virtue of its resilience, the short story ought to be treated as a wholesale and independent genre, worth of full scale appreciation. / African Languages / D. Litt. et Phil. (African Languages)

Cette thèse a un double objectif : évaluer la pertinence théorique du modèle du comportement planifié dans le contexte camerounais et valider un modèle intégratif d’explication de l’intention de s’engager dans des programmes de restructuration du travail informel. Nous sommes parti du constat d’un décalage entre la mobilisation croissante en vue de formaliser les activités informelles et leur paradoxale persistance dans les pays en voie de développement en général et au Cameroun en particulier. Il est question de comprendre pourquoi les acteurs du travail informel adhèrent peu aux politiques publiques en faveur dudit secteur.La littérature sur le travail informel l’aborde comme une catégorie d’analyse (Busso, 2005) et a tendance à expliquer l’échec des programmes par des causes exogènes, socioéconomiques et politiques. De ce fait, elle néglige l’importance de la dimension psychosociale dans l’implémentation des politiques publiques et l’accompagnement du changement. L’échec des programmes successifs initiés au Cameroun en vue de restructurer le travail informel justifie l’intérêt d’étudier les déterminants sociocognitifs de l’engagement dans lesdits programmes. En nous appuyant sur les modèles cognitivo-comportementaux, nous nous attendons à ce que les représentations, les croyances et les perceptions puissent permettre de mieux comprendre les intentions des acteurs du ce secteur à s’engager dans les programmes de restructuration dudit travail. Plusieurs approches théoriques sont ainsi mobilisés. La théorie des représentations sociales (Jodelet, 1996), la théorie du comportement planifié (Ajzen, 2015), la théorie du comportement orienté par un but (Locke & Latham, 2002) entre autres.Sept études ont été réalisées. La première explore les représentations sociales du travail informel et des programmes visant sa restructuration. Les six autres études sont empiriques. Elles explorent les liens entre représentations sociales, croyances et attitudes des travailleurs informels et des promoteurs d’unités de production informelles (études 2 et 3). Elles évaluent également la pertinence théorique du modèle du comportement planifié tout comme le rôle médiateur du désir (Bagozzi, 1992) entre l’intention comportementale et ses déterminants (études 4 et 5). Dans les études 6 et 7 sont évaluées l’impact de la connaissance, de la crédibilité perçue des programmes et des acteurs chargés de les piloter, ainsi que la perception de l’information sur l’intention. Les hypothèses sont vérifiées auprès de deux échantillons (travailleurs informels, N =337, et promoteurs d’unités de production informelle, N = 175, respectivement). Le modèle global est évalué.Les résultats confortent les hypothèses de la thèse. Malgré la pertinence du modèle du comportement planifié dans l’explication de l’intention de s’engager dans les programmes, l’intégration de variables nouvelles dans un modèle intégratif permet d’améliorer de façon significative la variance expliquée de l’intention. En effet, cette variance passe de 52.40% à 76% chez les travailleurs informels et de 44% à 78.30% chez les promoteurs d’unités de production informelle avec la prise en compte de ces variables supplémentaires. Par ailleurs, les résultats montrent que la connaissance des programmes joue un rôle prépondérant non seulement dans l’explication de l’intention, mais également de l’attitude. Ces résultats vont dans le sens des travaux antérieurs (Radovic & Hasking, 2013). La crédibilité perçue des programmes apparait aussi comme un déterminant majeur de l’intention chez les travailleurs informels alors qu’elle l’est moins chez les promoteurs d’UPI. Chez ces derniers, on note un effet élevé de la perception de l’information sur l’intention de s’engager dans les programmes de restructuration du travail informel. Ces résultats sont aussi consonants avec la littérature (Lunemberg, 2011) qui soutient que le désir est le déterminant proximal de l’intention. / This thesis has a double objective: to evaluate the theoretical pertinence of the planned behaviour theory (PBT) in the Cameroonian context and to validate an integrative explanatory model of the intention of engaging in the informal work sector restructuring programs. Our stating point was the observation of the distance that exists between the increasing mobilisation towards the formalisation of informal activities and their paradoxical persistence in developing countries in general and particularly in Cameroon. Our preoccupation is to understand why the informal work actors refuse to adhere to public policies in favour of the said sector. Which psycho-social variables could justify their intention and consequentLiterature on the informal work considers it as a category of analysis (Busso, 2005) and has the tendency of explaining the failure of programs by external, socioeconomic and political causes. By doing so, they neglect the psycho-social dimension in the implementation of public policies and the accompaniment of change. The successive failure of programs initiated in Cameroon in order to restructure the informal work justifies the interest towards socio-cognitive determinants of engagement in the said programs. Based on the cognitions-behaviours models, we expect that the representations, beliefs and perceptions could help in the understanding of the intentions of the actors to engage in informal work restructuring programs. Therefore, prediction models of behaviour have been mobilised in order to discern those socio-cognitive factors that can likely explain those intentions. Several theoretical approaches have been used in this framework. These include: the theory of social representations (Jodelet, 1996), the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 2015), the goal oriented behaviour theory (Locke & Latham, 2002), etc.Seven studies have been realised. The first one which is exploratory, analyses the social representations of the informal work and the programs geared towards its reorganization. The six other studies are empirical. They analyse the relationship between social representations, beliefs and attitudes respectively of the informal workers and the informal business promoters (studies 2 and 3); they evaluate the theoretical pertinence of the planned behaviour model just as the mediator role of the desire (Bagozzi, 1992) between the behavioural intention and its determinants (studies 4 and 5). In the 6th and 7th studies are evaluated the impact of the knowledge, the perceived credibility of the programs and the actors in charge of piloting them, as well as the perception of information about those programs on the intention. The hypotheses are verified on two samples (337 informal workers and 175 informal business promoters respectively). The global model is evaluated.The results reinforce the thesis. Despite the pertinence of the planned behaviour model in the explanation of the intention of engaging in the programs, the integration of new variables improve significantly the explained variance of the intention. Indeed, this variance goes from 52.40% to 76% among informal workers and from 44% to 78.30% among informal business promoters. Moreover, the results show that knowledge of programs plays a major role not only in explaining the intention, but also in the attitude. These results are in line with previous works (Radovic & Hasking, 2013). The perceived credibility of the programs appears also as a major determinant of the intention among informal workers while it is less among informal work promoters. Among the latter, there is quite a high effect of the perception of information on the intention of engaging in the informal work restructuring programs. These results are also consistent with the literature (Lunenberg, 2011) which considers the desire as the proximate determinant of the intention.