The Social-Norm Espousal Scale

•We created an instrument with which to assess dispositional espousal of social norms.•The measure manifests acceptable internal and test-retest reliability.•The measure correlates with measures of cognition and behavioral intent.•The measure correlates modestly with similar psychological measures.

Social norms play an important role in a variety of important cognitive and behavioral processes. Although individuals differ in terms of the extent to which they believe in and value social norms, no research to date has identified a measure with which to assess such dispositional variability. The current research assessed the reliability and validity of the Social-Norm Espousal Scale (SNES). A total of six studies utilized 752 participants recruited from a college campus, from an Internet data-collection site, and from an interurban train station. Collectively, results demonstrate that the measure is internally reliable, predicts self-reported behavior, predicts impression formation, and correlates significantly yet modestly with a variety of conceptually related constructs. The SNES thus appears to be a reliable and valid tool with which to assess individual differences in the extent to which people believe in and value social norms.