Denna uppsats presenterar en studie på hur nudging kan påverka användarupplevelsen i hedoniska system. Studien grundas på teorin Hedonic-Motivation System Adoption Model (HMSAM) för att förklara människans inre drivkrafter och hur dessa ter sig i förhållande till användarupplevelsen i hedoniska system. Vidare presenteras även teorier kring användarupplevelse med fokus på upplevelser i digitala gränssnitt, och nudging med ett fokus på digital nudging. En fallstudie på SVT Play, Sveriges Televisions digitala plattform för Video-on-demand (VoD) gjordes, vilken resulterade i ett förändringsförslag för den nuvarande plattformen. I en kvalitativ datainsamling i form av sex berättande intervjuer med olika informanter, undersöktes användarnas erfarenheter och tankar kring drivkrafterna i HMSAM, deras användarupplevelse av VoD samt hur de använder plattformen genom en praktisk genomgång av SVT Play. Resultatet från intervjuerna visade bland annat att informanterna upplevde att det idag inte gick att hitta information kring vilket medieinnehåll andra användare tycker om, någonting som för samtliga informanter var önskvärt i plattformen. Med avstamp i teorin kring nudging och den psykologiska principen sociala normer, vilken innebär att människor påverkas i sina val av hur andra gör, samt med utgångspunkt i resultatet från intervjuerna utformades ett förändringsförslag för SVT Play. Förändringsförslaget innebar att ändra titeln på sektionen “Populärt” i SVT Plays nuvarande gränssnitt till en titel med en högre grad socialt bevis (social proof på engelska, alltså hur tydligt den psykologiska principen sociala normer anspelas på). Sex olika varianter av rubriken med olika hög grad socialt bevis togs fram. Dessa sex varianter testades i realtid i ett så kallat A/B-test på SVT Play tillsammans med den ursprungliga rubriken “Populärt”, för att undersöka om en högre grad av socialt bevis hjälper användarna att hitta och välja innehåll, och således förbättrar deras användarupplevelse. A/B-testet låg uppe på SVT Play i åtta dygn och nästan en och en halv miljon användare exponerades för det. Resultatet från A/B-testet var dock inte tillräckligt signifikant för att dragna slutsatser ska hålla hög reliabilitet. Två av de förändringsförslag som användare klickade mest på samt såg klart innehållet, var de med högst nivå av socialt bevis: “Populärt bland andra tittare” och “Har du sett det andra älskar?” Även om mönstret inte är signifikant, visar summan av resultatet från den empiriska undersökningen att sociala normer kan användas för att påverka användarupplevelsen i en VoD-plattform. Ytterligare kvalitativa datainsamlingar är av intresse samt nödvändiga för att säkerställda samband. / The research conducted in this study aims to answer if, and in that case how, nudging can be used to affect the user experience in hedonic systems. The study is based on the theory of Hedonic-Motivation System Adoption Model (HMSAM) to explain people ́s intrinsic motivations and how they are tied to the user experience of hedonic systems. Furthermore, theories about user experience focusing on experiences in digital interfaces, as well as the theory of nudging with a focus on digital nudging are also presented. The study has been conducted through a case study at SVT Play, the Swedish Television's digital Video on Demand (VoD) platform and resulted in a proposition for a change in the current platform. Through a qualitative data collection in the form of six narrative interviews with different informants, their experiences and thoughts about the inner motivations in HMSAM as well as their user experiences with VoD were investigated. In the end of each interview a “walkthrough” in SVT Play was conducted. The result from the narrative interviews showed that an element with information about what media content other users like was hard to find or perceived as nonexistent, something that all informants desired in SVT Play. From the theory about nudging and the psychological effect social norms, which implies that the choices people make are affected by what other people do, together with result from the interviews, a proposition of a change was created for SVT Play. The proposition suggested changing the title for the section “Populärt” (popular in English), in SVT Play ́s current interface, to a title with a higher level of social proof (meaning how clear the psychological effect social norms was being targeted). Six different versions of the title, with different levels of social proof were created. These six versions were then tested in real time through A/B testing in the SVT Play platform, together with the original title “Populärt”, to examine if a higher level of social proof help users find and choose media content, thus enhance their user experience. The A/B test was live in SVT Play during eight days, while being exposed to almost one and a half million users. The result was however not significant enough to draw any conclusions with high reliability. Two of the propositions that people clicked the most and completed watching content, were the two versions with the highest level of social proof, “Populärt bland andra tittare” (Popular among other viewers, in English) and “Har du sett det andra älskar? (Have you seen what other people love? in English). Even though the patterns are not significant, a summary of the result from the empirical enquiry suggest that social norms can be used to affect the user experience in a VoD platform. Additional qualitative data collections would be both interesting and necessary to ensure relationschips.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:20:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 NestorMFB_DISSERT.pdf: 1580506 bytes, checksum: 2c3d6905b4637985a9bbe9946eeb948a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-23 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / This paper aim to check a hypothesis that assumes several behaviors related to social work norm?s obeying as a phenomenon that can be explained by actor?s social network structure and the rational choice processes related to the social norm inside that network, principally the payoff?s analysis received by the closest actors, or neighbors, at a social situation. Taking the sociological paradigm of rational action theory as a basis, the focus is on a debate about the logic of social norms, from ?mile Durkheim?s method to Jon Elster?s theory, but also including social network analysis?s variables according to Robert Hanneman; and also Vilfredo Pareto?s constants related to human sociability, at the aim to detect elements that can help the scholars to develop an agent based model which could explain the sociological problem of deviance by a better way than the common sense?s view about morality and ethics at a social work environment / Este trabalho pretende verificar a hip?tese de que a ado??o de comportamentos de obedi?ncia ou desobedi?ncia a norma social de trabalho pode ser explicada pela posi??o estrutural dos indiv?duos numa rede social e pelos processos racionais relevantes ? norma dentro desta rede; especialmente no tocante ? avalia??o de puni??es e recompensas recebidas pelas pessoas com as quais se tem mais contato no ambiente social em quest?o. Adotando o paradigma da sociologia da a??o, o foco ? o debate a respeito de uma l?gica das normas sociais a partir de ?mile Durkheim e que chega at? Jon Elster, mas tamb?m inclui uma explora??o do conceito de res?duos de Vilfredo Pareto recorrendo, dessa forma, ?s constantes comportamentais relacionadas ao desvio e ? sociabilidade humana e nos utilizando de medidas da an?lise de redes sociais de acordo com a obra de Robert Hanneman, no objetivo de detectar elementos necess?rios ao desenvolvimento de um modelo matem?tico explicativo que possa ajudar aos pesquisadores a compreender o problema do desvio comportamental relacionado ?s normas sociais de forma mais eficaz do que o recurso a eventuais fatores utilizados pelo senso comum, como princ?pios morais ou valores ?ticos e, no caso abordado, um eventual senso de responsabilidade no ambiente de trabalho

This study has as its objective to determine the impact of antiracism social norm about the expression of children‟s racial attitudes. Although, Racism is convicted in democratic societies, it has been verified in studies conducted in the context of intergroup relations. Researches conducted with adults have indicate that, in line with the anti-racism norm, individuals inhibit expression of Racism at the explicit level, however there is evidence that prejudice and racial discrimination persist, being expressed in indirect and subtle ways. 72 White children (43 boys and 29 girls) participated in this research, which were distributed among three different groups according to age: 6-7years, 8-10 years and 11-12 years. Attitudes of these children towards the White and Black groups and normative parameters that they verify in adults, friends and in themselves to interact with these groups were observed. Racial attitudes were analyzed by three measures: a scale of racial attitudes-MRA, a measure of social distance and an experimental procedure in which the impact of the anti-racism norm on the child´s behavior was manipulated by conditions of presence / absence of a Black interviewer. Contingency analysis indicated that all three groups studied here recognize the presence of antiracism norm, however they react differently to the presence of this norm. An analysis of variance between age of children and the scores obtained on the scale MRA revealed that children between 6 and 7 years old show elevated levels of explicit prejudice in comparison with the other groups. In contrast, children over 8 years of age have low levels of explicit prejudice and more significant levels of anti-racism attitude. Planned comparisons, however, indicated the presence of subtle racism. Although the children didn‟t evaluate the outgroup (Black) in a negative way, children remain evaluating the ingroup (White) positively. The data obtained from the measurement of social distance indicated, after a contingency analysis, greater sensitivity to anti-racism norm in older children. Between 6 and 7 years of age, children manifest rejection of Black, between 8 and 10 years old they just reject the Black in situations which involve higher degree of intimacy. After 10 years, however, there is expression of favoritism to Black. Regarding the experimental procedure, analysis of variance revealed no significant effect of the manipulation of the social norm, but there were effects of interaction between the child´s age and the target of choice (White / Black). This analysis indicated higher levels of racial discrimination against Blacks between children aged 6 to 10 years old and inhibition of racism among participants over the age of 10. Results confirm the theoretical considerations about new forms of expression of racism and the socio-cognitive development and show that the inhibition of explicit forms of racial prejudice and discrimination observed in adults, begins to emerge in childhood average. / O presente trabalho teve como objetivo verificar o impacto da norma social antirracismo sobre a expressão das atitudes raciais das crianças. O racismo, embora condenado nas sociedades democráticas, tem sido verificado nos estudos realizados no âmbito das relações intergrupais. Pesquisas realizadas com adultos apontam que, em consonância com a norma antirracismo, os indivíduos inibem a expressão do racismo a nível explícito, contudo há evidências de que o preconceito e a discriminação racial persistem, sendo expressos de formas indiretas e sutis. Participaram do estudo 72 crianças brancas (43 meninos e 29 meninas), que foram distribuídas em três diferentes grupos em função da idade: 6-7anos, 8-10 anos e 11-12 anos. Foram verificadas as atitudes destas crianças diante dos grupos branco e negro e os parâmetros normativos que elas percebem nos adultos, nos amigos e nelas mesmas para interagir com estes grupos. As atitudes foram analisadas a partir de três instrumentos: uma escala de atitudes raciais-MRA, uma medida de distância social e um procedimento experimental no qual o impacto da norma antirracismo sobre o comportamento da criança foi manipulado pelas condições de presença/ausência de uma entrevistadora negra. Análises de contingência indicaram que os três grupos etários estudados reconhecem a presença da norma antirracismo, contudo reagem de forma distinta à presença da mesma. Uma análise de variância entre a idade das crianças e os escores obtidos na escala MRA revelou que as crianças entre 6 e 7 anos apresentam níveis elevados de preconceito explícito em comparação com os demais grupos. Em contraste, as crianças com mais de 8 anos de idade apresentam baixos níveis de preconceito explícito e níveis mais expressivos de atitude antirracismo. Comparações planejadas, entretanto, indicaram a presença de racismo sutil. Embora não avaliem o exogrupo (negros) de forma negativa, as crianças permanecem avaliando o endogrupo (brancos) de forma positiva. Os dados obtidos a partir da medida de distância social indicaram, após uma análise de contingência, maior sensibilidade à norma antirracismo nas crianças mais velhas. Entre 6 e 7 anos de idade, as crianças manifestam rejeição ao negro, entre 8 e 10 anos de idade elas apenas rejeitam o negro nas situações que envolvem maior grau de intimidade. Após os 10 anos, entretanto, há expressão de favoritismo pelo negro. Quanto ao procedimento experimental, análises de variância não revelaram efeito significativo da manipulação da norma, contudo foram verificados efeitos de interação entre idade da criança e do alvo de escolha (branco/negro), indicando níveis mais elevados de discriminação racial contra os negros os 6 e 10 anos e inibição do racismo após esta idade. Os resultados encontrados corroboram as considerações teóricas sobre as novas formas de expressão do racismo e sobre o desenvolvimento sócio-cognitivo da criança e revelam que a inibição de suas formas explícitas, verificada nos adultos, começa a emergir na média infância.

De toutes les musiques populaires contemporaines, le rap, né dans le South Bronx à New York vers le milieu des années 1970, est probablement celle que l’on associe le plus communément à l’expression d’un discours masculin misogyne. Les rappeuses elles-mêmes décrivent fréquemment le rap comme un environnement masculin voire hostile aux femmes. Pourtant, depuis 1979, plusieurs générations de rappeuses ont fait le choix d’investir cet espace, écoulant des dizaines de millions de disques et participant de manière significative au développement de cette musique, sans être reconnues à la hauteur de leur contribution la plupart du temps. Cette thèse, inscrite au croisement de la science politique et des sciences de l’information et de la communication, s’intéresse à la façon dont des femmes noires des classes populaires négocient leur place dans une industrie dominée par les hommes. Grâce au rap, elles accèdent à une forme de visibilité sociale dans l’espace public qui leur permet de faire entendre un discours sur le genre, la race et la sexualité à rebours des représentations hégémoniques. La représentation étant un principe organisateur des relations sociales réelles, l’analyse du discours des rappeuses aide à mieux comprendre la façon dont se constituent et sont contestées les normes de genre, de race et de sexualité aux États-Unis. Le rap est aujourd’hui l’un des principaux lieux de (re)production de ces normes, et le terrain d’une guerre de position culturelle à propos des différentes idéologies de genre et de race. Dans le rap, des artistes femmes performent leur genre et leur race et construisent autrement leur identité, loin des modèles dominants de la féminité. / Of all popular music genres, rap – a music born in the South Bronx in New York in the mid-1970s – is the one most commonly linked to a masculine and misogynistic discourse. Even female rappers often describe the genre as a male-dominated and even hostile environment. Still, numerous female rappers have entered this space since 1979, selling millions of records and contributing to the development of this genre, even though they usually don’t get the recognition they deserve. At the crossroads of political science and media studies, this study focuses on how working-class, black women find success in a male-dominated industry and reach social visibility in the public sphere. In their lyrics, female rappers openly discuss gender, race and sexuality and dispute hegemonic representations. Because representation is an organizing principle of social relations, a study of female rappers’ discourse provides us with a better understanding of the way norms of gender, race and sexuality are constituted – and challenged – through rap music. Rap is now one of the main spaces where these norms are (re)produced. It is the battlefield of an ongoing "war of position" involving ideologies of gender and race. In this space, black women express gender and race through performance and negotiate their identity far from the traditional gender norms.

La politique agro-environnementale de l’Union Européenne s’appuie fortement sur des incitations financières, les Contrats Agro-Environnementaux (CAE), pour stimuler l’adoption par les agriculteurs de pratiques respectueuses de l’environnement. Selon l’hypothèse de rationalité économique, les agriculteurs adoptent ces contrats si les paiements couvrent leurs coûts d’opportunité. Toutefois, l’Économie comportementale considère que des facteurs psychologiques pourraient intervenir dans cette décision. Le premier objectif de cette thèse est de déterminer le rôle des facteurs comportementaux dans l’adoption des CAE. Dans le chapitre 1, nous utilisons un modèle de psychologie sociale, la Théorie du Comportement Planifié, pour mesurer le poids de ces facteurs dans la décision d’adopter un CAE pour la réduction de l’utilisation de pesticides. L’enquête révèle que les agriculteurs sont à la fois influencés par des motivations économiques classiques et par les normes (sociales et personnelles). Dans le chapitre 2, nous étudions plus en détails le rôle des normes. A travers un modèle théorique, nous mettons en évidence que ces normes peuvent faciliter ou faire obstacle à l’adoption de CAE. Une enquête web nous permet de confirmer l’importance des normes sociales injonctives et des normes personnelles. Dans la deuxième partie de la thèse, nous analysons les performances de dispositifs innovants et comment ces performances sont influencées par les facteurs comportementaux. Dans le chapitre 3, pour traiter le problème des seuils environnementaux, nous testons avec une expérimentation économique un contrat dont le paiement est conditionné à une participation collective des agriculteurs. Ce contrat se révèle plus efficace et efficient que les CAE classiques. Les deux derniers chapitres traitent d’une nouvelle application des CAE à la compensation écologique. A partir d’une enquête, nous identifions dans le chapitre 4 les facteurs qui influencent la participation à ce type de contrats ainsi que des problèmes d’efficacité et d’efficience. Dans le chapitre 5, nous montrons à partir d’une expérience de choix, que les agriculteurs, notamment les plus sensibles à l’environnement, sont sensibles à la manière dont est formulée l’objectif d’un CAE : ils préfèrent des contrats dont l’objectif est la préservation de la biodiversité, plutôt que la compensation de pertes de biodiversité. Nous concluons en insistant sur la complémentarité entre les instruments traditionnels et comportementaux dans la politique environnementale. / The agri-environmental policy of the European Union strongly relies on financial incentives provided through Agri-envrionmental Schemes (AES) to stimulate farmers’ adoption of pro-environmental practices. A rational economic assumption is that farmers enroll if they are paid enough to cover their opportunity costs. However, behavioral economics consider that psychologic factors may be involved in this decision. The first aim of this thesis is to determine the role of behavioral factors in AES adoption. Chapter 1 uses a social-psychology model, the Theory of Planned Behavior, to measure the weight of behavioral factors in farmers’ decision to enroll in a pesticide-reduction AES. The survey reveals that farmers are both driven by traditional economic motivations and norms (social and personal). Chapter 2 studies in more details the role of norms. A theoretical model reveals that social norms may either hamper or facilitate the participation in AES and a web-survey, confirms the importance of social injunctive norms and personal norms. In the second part of the thesis, we analyze the performance of innovative designs and how it may be affected by behavioral factors. In chapter 3, to address cases of environmental threshold, we test with an economic experiment a contract in which payment is conditioned to collective farmers’ participation. This contract appears to be more effective and efficient than traditional AES. The two last chapters analyze a new application of AES: biodiversity offsets. Based on a survey, chapter 4 highlights factors that influence the participation in such contracts as well as issues of effectiveness and efficiency. In chapter 5, we show with a choice experiment that farmers, especially the most environmentally sensitive, are influenced by the contracts’ goal framing: they prefer contracts that aim at biodiversity conservation rather than at the compensation of biodiversity losses. We conclude by insisting on the complementarity between traditional and behavioral environmental policy instruments.

My final thesis deals with women's employment in USA and its changes during two historical moments of the World War II and Great Depression. Because of the continuous changes in this area an analysis of historical trends is a valuable source of information for understanding these changes. For a correct understanding of the influence of chosen historical periods the beginning of the thesis deals with an analysis of the situation before these periods. In the main part one chapter deals with the period of Great Depression, when women faced the pressure of the society to leave the labor market and leave the jobs to men, as to a main breadwinners. Next chapter describes trends during the World War II, when women work was promoted and the pressure was in the opposite direction. The last chapter analyzes a situation after the war and an impact of the World War II in both the short and long term. Special attention is given to two groups of women, married and Afro-American. These groups were influenced in given periods in a specific way. The reason why is mostly social norms within married women and disadvantages position of the Afro-American women in a labor market within this group. Aim of the thesis is not only description of the trends but also deeper analysis of governmental approaches, economical factors and social norms and it's interdependence and causality. From the trends we can see that changes in women's employment were strongly influenced by economic situation of the country and that social norms were able to adapt to these economic circumstances in a short term. In long term they were constant.

Ce travail de thèse questionne la perception de la féminité et sa relation au maquillage. Cette recherche est initiée par l’étude de l’impact du maquillage sur la modification d’une caractéristique du dimorphisme sexuel : le contraste facial (CF) (Russell, 2003, 2009). Nous avons démontré que malgré la pertinence du CF, celui-ci est insuffisant pour rendre compte du lien maquillage/féminité. Ces résultats nous interpellent quant à la seule présence du maquillage pour évaluer la féminité sans se référer aux caractéristiques biologiques. Le maquillage, par sa représentation sociale, est fortement lié à celle de la féminité. Le soin du corps qu’il représente en fait un élément central pour la féminité des femmes. Huguet et al. (2006) démontre l’existence d’un stéréotype « ce dont on a pris soin est bien » pouvant être activé par la présence de maquillage. Nous avons démontré l’existence d’une norme sociale astreignant les femmes à se maquiller pour être féminine, où le maquillage est une condition nécessaire pour obtenir non seulement des jugements de féminité élevés mais également un ensemble de caractéristiques positives. La perception de la féminité intègre dans son processus de réalisation à la fois des indices perceptifs mais fait également appel aux connaissances disponibles en mémoire, les stéréotypes, les représentations et les normes sociales rendues accessibles par le maquillage. Nous pouvons alors conclure que le maquillage n’est pas, par nature, féminin et positif mais qu’il est utilisé comme un élément de référence dans une conception multidimensionnelle de la féminité. / This project questions the perception of femininity and its relationship to make-up. It is prompted by the impact makeup has on the alteration of a sexual dimorphism characteristic : the facial contrast (FC) (Russell, 2003, 2009). We have shown that in spite the FC’s prominence, it remains insufficient to account for the link between make-up and femininity. The results challenge the presumption that makeup is present in assessing femininity, without taking into account biological characteristics. By its social representation, make-up is strongly linked to the idea of femininity. Because makeup is representative of self body-care in women, it becomes a central element for the representation of femininity. Huguet et al. (2006) demonstrates the existence of a stereotype such as « what has been cared for is good », which can be activated by the presence of makeup. We have demonstrated the existence of a social norm that compels women to wear make-up in order to be feminine exists, where makeup becomes a necessary condition for obtaining not only feminine judgements, but also a set of positive characteristics. The process of acknowledging the perception of femininity incorporates perceptive characteristics, as well as using available knowledge in memory, stereotypes, social representations and social norms brought to the fore by makeup. We can then conclude that make-up is not feminine and positive by nature, but that is used as a reference element in multi-dimensional perceptions of femininity.

Cette thèse étudie l'influence du travail sur la qualité de l'emploi et la qualité de vie des individus. Cette dernière est approximée par la perception que les individus ont de leur santé. Le premier chapitre étudie les conséquences de la perte d'emploi liée à la fermeture d'un établissement sur l'ensemble des dimensions de la qualité de l'emploi retrouvé. Nous montrons que ce choc induit une dégradation, y compris sur le long terme, des salaires, de l'insécurité de l'emploi perçue, de la qualité de l'environnement de travail et de la satisfaction des travailleurs. Les deux derniers chapitres tentent de comprendre les déterminants des différences de santé perçue selon le genre. Dans le deuxième chapitre, nous analysons le rôle de la santé mentale dans les écarts de santé déclarée selon le genre. Le troisième chapitre étudie l'influence des normes sociales au travail, sur la santé perçue. Nous montrons que les femmes comme les hommes travaillant dans des collectifs de travail féminins déclarent davantage de problèmes de santé spécifiques que celles et ceux travaillant dans des collectifs masculins. Ce travail souligne donc, d'une part, l'effet négatif de la perte d'emploi sur la qualité de l'emploi retrouvé et la satisfaction à long terme et, d'autre part, l'importance du mal-être et des normes sociales au travail pour comprendre les différences de santé perçue entre les genres. / This thesis studies the influence of work on job and life quality, the latter being considered through the perception that individuals have of their own health. The first chapter focuses on the long-term effects of job losses due to plant closure on job quality. We show that job loss negatively affects wages, perceived job insecurity, the quality of the working environment and job satisfaction, including in the long run. The two last chapters investigate gender differences in self-reported health. The second chapter provides descriptive evidence on the relationships between self-assessed health, gender and mental health problems, i.e. depression and/or affective pains. Finally, in the last chapter, we study the influence of social norms as proxied by the gender structure of the workplace environment, on gender differences in self-reported health. We show that both women and men working in female-dominated environments report more specific health problems than those who work in male-dominated environments. The overall findings of this thesis are twofold. First, losing a job has a negative impact on several dimensions of job quality and satisfaction in the long run. Secondly, mental diseases and social norms at work are important to understand gender-related differences in health perceptions.

M. Tech. (Department of Marketing, Faculty of Management Sciences), Vaal University of Technology / In the case of cosmetic products, which convey both psychological and symbolic benefits to consumers, it is imperative for marketers to expand the scope of product trial as it presents a novel strategy for signalling the success of new products. In lieu of this, considerable attention should be accorded to the ubiquitous role of influential consumers who are instrumental in influencing the behaviour of other consumers through exemplary conduct and/or interpersonal word-of-mouth (WOM) communication. In this vein, this study sought to examine the influence of selected factors on market maven tendency and the ultimate trial of new cosmetic products by female consumers in the southern Gauteng. This presents the need to examine empirically the role of market mavens who play an indispensable role in filling the omitted information gaps existing within the market. Particularly, this research is in response to calls for unremitting replications of the work seeking to establish the nomological variables that are antecedent to the market mavenism construct. The study drew from the confluence of the Two-step flow theory and the Stimulus Organism Response (SOR) theory, which provided theoretical lenses in understanding how various stimuli could possibly influence the maven tendency (organism) and the ultimate trial of new cosmetic products (response) by those mavens situated in the southern Gauteng region of South Africa. In view of achieving the overarching objective of this study, a sample survey was conducted in 2018 using a sample of female market mavens that were selected on referral basis, after applying the snowball sampling technique. In the cross-sectional based sample survey, a self-administered questionnaire was utilised. Drawing from the responses, a trichotomisation was developed, enabling the researcher to categorise the participants by including those individuals reporting either low (n=86), moderate (n=141) or high (n=248) maven tendency scores. Resultantly, the findings from a cross-section of 475 female mavens were admissible for statistical analysis. Drawing from the statistical analysis, the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) procedure steered the extraction of six components that are salient towards calibrating the tendency towards market mavenship among female consumers of cosmetic products. The scale items along these six components yielded acceptable internal consistency reliability (Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranged between 0.792 and 0.876), whereas the results of the descriptive statistics revealed mean score rankings above 4.0 across the six components, thereby signalling agreeability among the participants with regard to the determinants of market maven tendency. Likewise, weak to moderate correlation coefficients that were positive and statistically significant (p <0.01) were also established in this work (ranging between +0.297 and +0.639). This inferred the existence oflinear and direct relationships among the variables examined in this work. Based on this, it was possible to conduct a structural equation modelling procedure. Prior to testing the hypothesised relationships, model fit of the measurement model was evaluated. Moreover, analysis of the statistical accuracy measures in terms of the reliability and validity of the measurement model pointed to the existence of a six-variable structure of new product trial, comprising consumer innovativeness, aspirational attractiveness, social norms influence, advertising efficacy, market maven tendency and new cosmetic products’ trial. Correspondingly, the direction and prediction among these constructs was tested by specifying a structural model. The structural model yielded adequate fit indices. In terms of prediction, the four constructs, namely consumer innovativeness (ß=+0.441; Z=9.292; p<0.01), social norms influence (ß=+0.339; Z=7.272; p<0.01), advertising efficacy (ß=+0.293; Z=6.607; p<0.01) and aspirational attractiveness (ß=+0.182; Z=4.099; p<0.01) were proven to have positive and statistically significant predictive influence on market maven tendency, in that order. Together, the four stimuli are presumed to explain approximately 43 percent of the variance in the tendency towards market mavenship among the responding female consumers. Market maven tendency was confirmed as a predictor of new product trial in this research (ß=+0.478; Z=8.448; p<0.01). This latter path proved that the tendency towards market maven behaviour explains approximately 23 percent on the variance in new product trial among female mavens. These maiden findings suggest that it is possible to anchor the construct of market maven tendency along a broader behavioural science theory, comprising selected stimulus elements. In particular, the results derived in this study demonstrate the three-fold orientation of the female maven in terms of innate (consumer innovativeness), context-based (social norms influence and advertising efficacy) as well as the desired or sought-after (aspirational attractiveness) stimuli that influence market maven tendency. In addition, the study confirmed that new product trial could act as an invaluable tool for raising awareness about the features and benefits of new cosmetic products. Based on these results, it is recommended that marketing managers capitalise on the contribution of market mavens as auxiliary dispensers of new beauty product information.

Background. By defining what is “normal,” appropriate, expected, and unacceptable, social norms shape human behavior. However, the individual-level mechanisms through which social norms impact population-level trends in health-relevant behaviors are not well understood. Aims. To test the ability of social norms mechanisms to predict changes in population-level drinking patterns. Method. An individual-level model was developed to simulate dynamic normative mechanisms and behavioral rules underlying drinking behavior over time. The model encompassed descriptive and injunctive drinking norms and their impact on frequency and quantity of alcohol use. A microsynthesis initialized in 1979 was used as a demographically representative synthetic U.S. population. Three experiments were performed in order to test the modelled normative mechanisms. Results. Overall, the experiments showed limited influence of normative interventions on population-level alcohol use. An increase in the desire to drink led to the most meaningful changes in the population’s drinking behavior. The findings of the experiments underline the importance of autonomy, that is, the degree to which an individual is susceptible to normative influence. Conclusion. The model was able to predict theoretically plausible changes in drinking patterns at the population level through the impact of social mechanisms. Future applications of the model could be used to plan norms interventions pertaining to alcohol use as well as other health behaviors.