What do descriptive norms focus on?

Descriptive norms are centered around actual behaviors exhibited in social situations. They reflect what people commonly do in a given context, providing a baseline for understanding social behavior. For instance, if most people in a given group choose to recycle, that behavior becomes a descriptive norm indicating that recycling is a typical action for individuals within that group.

This focus on actual behaviors contrasts with other options, which emphasize perceptions or expectations of behavior rather than what is genuinely practiced. For example, the first option pertains to prescriptive norms involving rules about how individuals should behave, while the second refers to the perceptions of what behaviors are approved, which relates to injunctive norms. The fourth option deals with behaviors that might deviate from social norms, but descriptive norms specifically highlight behaviors that are actually observed rather than those that are expected or discouraged. Hence, the emphasis on what is commonly done— C —accurately captures the essence of descriptive norms in social psychology.