I remember sitting in my very first Consumer Behaviour 1101 class as a 19-year-old psychology and marketing student. Like most people in that room, I was still had no clue what I wanted to do with my life; I was torn between the clinical neuropsychology pathway and a growing fascination with marketing.
The lecture started talking about persuasion and how brands could use concepts like reciprocity, authority and social proof to positively impact people’s behaviours (if you’ve sat in a first-year marketing class, you’ll remember this). This wasn’t about selling another product, it was about meaningful behavioural change – like taking part in health screenings, stopping single plastic bag use, or donating to an important cause. Suddenly, I was hooked. It was the perfect convergence of my nerdy love for understanding our brains and the creative, impact focus of modern marketing.
My lecturer was referencing Dr. Robert Cialdini’s 1984 classic book, Influence. Even now, in 2026, you’ll see his principles of persuasion in basically any article you read online about how to influence people. One of these tactics he talks about is Social Proof or the “everyone else is doing it” tactic. The idea is that when people are uncertain, we look to others to define our own behaviour.
But what happens when the behaviour you want to encourage isn’t the majority yet? The latest psychology research is moving past Cialdini’s principles and into what is called Dynamic Norms.
Before we look at this new research, let’s revisit the Cialdini’s study where it started.
Cialdini’s Hotel Towel Study
The most famous example of Social Proof is Cialdini’s study on hotel towel reuse. To see what would get guests to reuse their towels, researchers tested different signs on hotel washroom towel racks:
- The standard sign (environmental focus): HELP SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. You can show your respect for nature and help save the environment by reusing your towels during your stay
- The new sign (social proof): JOIN YOUR FELLOW GUESTS IN HELPING TO SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT. Almost 75% of guests who are asked to participate in our new resource savings program do help by using their towels more than once….
The result: The social proof sign significantly outperformed the standard environmental message with a higher towel reuse rate (44.1% reuse vs 35.1%). This showed that we care less about saving the environment (in abstract terms) and more about what our peers are doing.
Cialdini then pushed the experiment a step further by testing a “provincial norm” – a message that specifically referenced the people who had stayed in that exact room:
- New sign 2 (Provincial norm): …75% of the guests who stayed in this room (#xxx) participated in our new resource savings program by using their towels more than once…
This local message drove the reuse rate to nearly 50%.
This well-known experiment showed that we are influenced by what others are doing. This is even stronger when it matches our immediate settings.
The latest research on influencing early action
Social norms are a key to changing behaviour, but it relies on a specific condition: the desired behaviour must already be the majority.
So what do you do if the behaviour you want to change isn’t the social norm?
If you have a niche cause or are trying to stop a harmful (but popular) behaviour, you can’t claim that “75% of people” are doing it like Cialdini could with the hotel towels. In fact, telling someone that “only 10% of people donate to this cause” can backfire, as it reinforces the idea that not donating is the social norm.
This is where the latest research on Dynamic Norms comes in. Here’s the difference:
- Static Norms (like Cialdini’s Social Proof) tell us what is happening right now.
- Dynamic Norms tell us what is starting to happen.
This shifts the person’s mindset from “Am I doing what everyone else is doing?” to “Am I part of where the world is going?”
The study: changing behaviours that are counter normative
To test whether people conform to dynamic norms, Sparman and Walton (2017) did an experiment to get people to reduce their meat consumption. Given that this is the social norm in America, there was no clear theory on how to change this behaviour.
They found that telling people “30% of Americans make an effort to eat less meat” (Static) had almost no effect. However, telling them that “30% of Americans have started to make an effort” (Dynamic) increased interest in eating less meat and actually doubled the number of meatless lunch orders.
The reason why this worked so well is because of two assumptions that our brain makes when we see a trend (like eating less meat) increasing:
- Preconformity: We anticipate a future in which this behaviour is normal, so we conform to this behaviour as if it is already reality. We think, “In the future, this is how everyone will act. I should get ahead of the curve.”
- Perceived Importance: If we see others are making a conscious effort to change, we perceive this behaviour as more important. We tell ourselves, “If people are changing their habits, this must be an important issue I’ve overlooked.”
An Australian case study: “Don’t Make Smokes Your Story”
We can see a great example of dynamic norms in action in the National Tobacco Campaign launched in 2016 called “Don’t make smokes your story.” This campaign focused on reducing smoking rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
For years, previous anti-smoking campaigns focused on fear and the consequences of smoking. However, for those in close-knit communities, this message could sometimes feel distant or stigmatising. “Don’t Make Smokes Your Story” focused on storytelling and dynamic norms to shift the focus toward the “rising trend” and growing movement of people choosing a different path.
By highlighting real stories of individuals who were starting their quitting journey or choosing to stay smoke-free for their families, the campaign created a dynamic norm. It signalled that this is the new collective movement and future for the community.
The result: The 2016 post campaign report found that after seeing the ad:
- 9% of Indigenous smokers reported that they had quit.
- 27% said they had reduced their cigarette consumption.
- 30% said they intended to reduce the amount they smoked in future.
Importantly the campaign drove more action than the previous traditional fear-based campaigns (58% vs 48%). This shows how dynamic norms can create real behaviour change, even for behaviours that are resistant to change or in the minority.
How to apply this: ask people to be part of the future
As humans, we want all just part of what is “normal”. But numbers are less important than you might’ve thought. Even a small group of people taking action can drive major change if that change is perceived as the way of the future.
You can leverage this principle in your strategic communications by shifting your copy from focusing on static (current numbers) to dynamic (future-oriented).
A cautionary note
Dynamic norms can backfire if people feel like they are being forced into changing their behaviour or the message feels inauthentic. This can cause reactance where the person does the opposite just to prove independence. So, if you want to use dynamic norms in your comms, make sure the data is authentic and specific.
Here are some examples:
- Static: Join 5,000 members across the country who support this cause.
- Dynamic: Support for our cause has increased by 40% in just the last year. Join this movement.
- Static: Only 15% of people in Perth currently compost their food waste.
- Dynamic: Over 5,000 in (your suburb) are starting to compost. Join your neighbours in making the switch.
- Static: Join our monthly donors who are helping to make change happen.
- Dynamic: Every day, more people are choosing to stand with us. This month alone, 300 people have signed up as monthly donors. Will you join them?
While Cialdini’s “standard” social norms still have a critical place, in 2026 we’ve realised there are more ways to drive action and change. Instead of showing your audience where you are, show them where the world is going. By leveraging the psychology of Dynamic Norms, you can inspire action by asking people to be part of the future, before it becomes the norm.