900 PALUCK AND SHEPHERD learn about collective social norms is imp tant for understand ne p In th article.we test the hypothesis that highly cted and he social n rega cial referent stable percept tive social norms from a host of cues,theorie ibing the ence of ial refe She d ore tha s.we test th they have t i Social Referents Provide Cues to Collective Norms 2000:Miller&Prent How Individuals Identify Social Norms Social psychological theory predicts that individuals form their the ti not clu what is socially norm cognitionor f the As a result of the c ollective oup identity. extent of thei A second type of person who is theor ctically well positi ally.in s may the aueceoftm school.The indi iduals have a large numb cial their nips are frequently obs in the of fem are highly co embers of the clique In par when the be oadly endorsed and when the n with the y high l or takes place.Gi liques grant indiv uals a feeling of unig bcha e conditi ns,it is n able to ask well as one of likely to b duals infer within a Widely known individuals and leaders of cliaues should have ter influence than other members of a community over per more likely to be perceived as act.ype o latively wid oss the tive norms in the course of their everyday lives? How Individuals Identify Collective Norms Through Social Referents tative of the group as a whol At the same time.clique When individuals form an im ion of how mo onle in community feel about for relations.not behavior.due to their greater personal relevance to group memberslearn about collective social norms is important for understanding the persistence of norms and behavioral patterns in a collective, as well as instances of change in norms and behavior. In this article, we test the hypothesis that highly connected and chronically salient individuals in a community provide cues as to the social norms of the collective. To test this hypothesis, we use a randomized intervention within a repeatedly measured, complete high school social network. Although individuals likely infer col￾lective social norms from a host of cues, theories describing the influence of social reference groups and situational social interac￾tions suggest that certain individuals, or social referents (Sherif & Sherif, 1964), will shape inferences about collective norms signif￾icantly more than others. We test the way in which cues from these social referents are transmitted to their peers through everyday social interaction, specifically, interaction that is frequent and personally motivated, as opposed to interaction shaped by institu￾tional channels like shared classes. Social Referents Provide Cues to Collective Norms How Individuals Identify Social Norms Social psychological theory predicts that individuals form their ideas about what is socially normative in a social context or within a community by observing other people’s public behavior. The power of that perceived norm over individuals’ own cognition or behavior depends on the extent to which they perceive the norm to be univer￾sally endorsed, and the extent to which they feel personally tied to the context or community (Miller & Prentice, 1996; Sherif, 1936). For example, when an individual observes a person littering in a parking lot, the littering behavior may not serve as a cue to a littering norm if there are signals that the behavior is not universally endorsed, such as another person picking up trash or a previous experience in the parking lot in which no one littered (Cialdini, Reno, & Kallgren, 1990). Additionally, individuals may reject the influence of norms belonging to a context or community if they are motivated to define their identity in opposition to that context or community, as in the case of “fringe groups” (Blanton & Burkley, 2008; Blanton & Christie, 2003), or if they feel they do not fit the community prototype, as in the case of female undergraduates at a traditionally male university (Hogg, 2010; Prentice & Miller, 1993). In sum, public behaviors influence perceptions of social norms when the behaviors seem broadly endorsed and when the perceiver feels personally tied to the context or community in which the behavior takes place. Given these conditions, it is reasonable to ask whose behavior contributes the most to individuals’ perceptions of norms in a context or community. This question is particularly relevant for understanding how individuals infer norms within a wider community where individuals interact repeatedly across different situations. Are there particular types of people in the community whose behavior is more likely to be perceived as universally endorsed, and as personally relevant? Do certain peo￾ple “count” more when individuals draw inferences about collec￾tive norms in the course of their everyday lives? How Individuals Identify Collective Norms Through Social Referents When individuals form an impression of how most people in a community feel about, for example, race relations, they do not comprehensively account for each person’s apparent racial atti￾tudes and compute an unweighted modal or average collective position. We revisit and test the long-standing hypothesis that the public behaviors of highly connected and chronically salient actors in a group, called social referents, provide normative cues regard￾ing what is acceptable and desirable for group members (Sherif & Sherif, 1964). For each individual group member, social referents are most influential over stable perceptions of collective norms when the individual is personally connected to the referent and repeatedly observes the referent across situations. Personal con￾nections are critical to referents’ influence because perceivers infer more social information from and are more influenced by people with whom they have an affinity or felt connection (Hardin & Higgins, 1996; Hogg, 2010). Repeated observation of social ref￾erents in various situations is important because individuals do not identify norms on the basis of their accumulated experience and knowledge (Miller & Prentice, 1996), but rather on the basis of immediate context in which the norms are relevant (Kallgren, Reno, & Cialdini, 2000; Miller & Prentice, 1996). We examine the influence of two types of social referents in a collective. One type is a widely known individual, who has many ties to individuals across the network (i.e., the ties are not clustered among a subgroup, but span several subgroups in the network). Widely known people are personally connected to many members of the community. As a result of their reach across the social network, and, relatedly, because they are often respected and considered popular by others, their behavior may be identified as representative of the collective group identity. Additionally, due to the extent of their relations in the network, their behavior is likely to be more frequently observed across situations in the community. A second type of person who is theoretically well positioned to shape perceptions of collective norms is a leader of a subgroup, or “clique,” within the community, such as a friendship clique in a school. These individuals have a large number of social relations, but their relationships are largely concentrated within a subgroup in which the subgroup members have social relations with one another. A clique leader’s behavior is frequently observed by clique members because they interact with one another more often than they do with others in the community. Also, leaders of cliques are highly connected to other members of the clique. In particular, connections in a clique may be marked by high levels of identifi￾cation with the clique leader referent, because membership in cliques grant individuals a feeling of uniqueness as well as one of belongingness (Pickett, Silver, & Brewer, 2002). Thus, the norms inferred within an individual’s subgroup are less likely to be rejected as unrepresentative of the individual’s identity (Blanton & Christie, 2003). Widely known individuals and leaders of cliques should have a greater influence than other members of a community over per￾ceived collective norms. However, each type of individual may also have a slightly different impact. For example, due to their relatively wider reach across the social network and their status in the group, widely known people may seem more relevant for inferring collective norms as they may be perceived as more representative of the group as a whole. At the same time, clique leaders may be particularly capable of influencing personal attach￾ment to collective norms and enforcing costly or socially riskier behavior, due to their greater personal relevance to group members 900 PALUCK AND SHEPHERD This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly