Ideal Vs Injunctive Norm
The second experiment the authors wanted to focus more on the injunctive norm (what is approved or disapproved in those situations). They wanted to see if a message that focused recipients on the injunctive norm will be superior to messages that focused on descriptive norms. In order to test their hypothesis, they got permission from the petrified forest national park officials. They secretly placed petrified woods along the visitors pathway and placed signs that displayed descriptive norms and injunctive norm message to see if the visitors will steal the woods. They found out that the descriptive norm message increased thefts of the petrified woods than the injunctive norm message.