What the Fork? The Impact of Social Norm Violation on User Behavior

Research indicates that exposure to swearing, an experience often perceived as a norm violation may affect individual and group behaviors. To further explore this, we examined whether personal and group norms for swearing influence the extent to which exposure to swearing spreads virally and affects group performance during an online group discussion. Participants engaged in an online group decision-making task that assesses group performance and opinion polarization. Results revealed that groups exposed to profanity and were permissive of swearing were more likely to demonstrate deviant behavior that spread beyond swearing (i.e., less task focus and less formal language) as compared to groups not exposed to profanity. Furthermore, exposure to swearing decreased the quality of group decisions and increased group polarization. These results have implications for social norms and user behavior and productivity in distributed teams.