Studies on minimal rule behaviour: Formal rules in public places

• Published in: Psychology, crime & law crime & law, 1998-10, Vol.4 (4), p.309-321
• Main Authors: Webley, Paul, Verkuyten, Maykel, Hessing, Dick J., Elffers, Henk
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: dimensions of rules; minimal rule behaviour; semantic aspects of behavioural prescriptions
• ISSN: 1068-316X; 1477-2744
• DOI: 10.1080/10683169808401762

The present paper is concerned with the effect of different characteristics of behavioural prescriptions in order to study what we call 'minimal rule behaviour'. With this term we refer to prescriptions for which there is no visible rationale or social convention. Two field studies were conducted in the subway of Rotterdam to investigate the effect of three dimensions of rules: (1) the relevance of the prescription, (2) the origin of the prescription, and (3) the level of imperativeness. A total of 1241 observations were made and 611 short interviews were held. The results show that the mere presence of a written behavioural prescription has a very strong effect on actual behaviour. In a third study the semantic aspects of behavioural prescriptions were studied. For this study a questionnaire was administered to 401 undergraduate students. The results indicated a severity factor (related to imperativeness) and a meaningfulness factor (related to the presence of an explanation). Furthermore, increasing the imperativeness of a rule had two countervailing effects: it both increased the rule's severity and its meaninglessness. Finally, in study 3 we found a clear effect of imperativeness on behavioural intentions, an effect that could not be ascertained in studies 1 and 2.