Guided by literature on normative influences, this study explores the extent to which different norm appeals can generate a different level of norm perceptions and conditions that make the norm appeals more salient to impact smokers’ behavioral intention. This study employed a field experiment conducted among Korean male smokers in Korea, who were randomly assigned to descriptive or injunctive norm conditions. An analysis among 171 samples resulted in the following: (1) norm appeals alone are not sufficient enough to generate different norm perceptions; (2) smoking environments can make norm appeals more salient and thus make audience more responsive to the norm appeals; (3) environmental cues affect the persuasiveness of descriptive norms more than injunctive norms. This study contributes to normative influence literature, theoretically, and to health message strategies, practically.
Key words : antismoking campaigns, norm salience, social norms, smoking environment, norm appeal