This study examines the evolution of Schwartz’s Basic Human Values during the COVID-19 outbreak, and their relationships with perceived threat, compliance with movement restrictions and social distancing. An online questionnaire was administered to a heterogeneous sample of French citizens (N = 1025) during the first French lockdown related to the outbreak. Results revealed a significant evolution of values; the conservation value was higher during the outbreak than usual, and both self-enhancement and openness-to-change values were lower during the COVID-19 outbreak than usual. Conservation and perceived threat during the outbreak were robustly and positively related to both compliance with movement restrictions and social distancing. Conservation during the outbreak emerged as a significant partial mediator of the relationship between perceived threat and outcomes (i.e., compliance with movement restrictions and social distancing). Implications of these results for the malleability of values and the COVID-19 modelling are discussed.

Studies on the perception of multiculturalism, in France and elsewhere, usually look only at personal attitudes without asking what individuals perceive as the norm in their community. This article presents the findings of a survey based on a representative sample of the French population ( N = 1001) which aims to fill this gap. In accordance with the concept of ‘pluralist ignorance’, the results reveal a significant difference between personal attitudes toward multiculturalism and assimilation (i.e. the French are personally in favor of multiculturalism) and the perceived social norm (they think that the majority of French people are opposed to multiculturalism). Furthermore, as expected, the perceptions of the norm are broadly shared, regardless of sex, age or political orientation, unlike personal attitudes. Thus, whereas both the far right and the far left agree on the perception of the norm, only sympathizers of the far right declare themselves personally in favor of assimilation. Finally, the results make an important contribution to understanding the influence of education (number of years of schooling), on individuals’ attitudes, showing that within the most educated categories there are significant differences according to field of study.

Attitudes and social norms are key social psychological concepts that have often been considered as independent determinants of human behavior. However, questions about the interplay between the two are somewhat of a blind spot in social psychology. In the present research, we test the hypothesis that when an important change in norms is involved, behavioral intentions will be shaped by a discrepancy between personal attitudes and the perceived group norm, that is the perception of other group members’ attitudes. This proposition is tested and supported across three studies in a context of the conversion to organic farming, a behavior indicative of a significant societal and behavioral change. Farmers who did convert to organic farming were those who perceive other farmers to hold less positive attitudes toward this environmentally‐friendly practice compared to their own (Study 1a & 1b, N = 1,023). Among conventional farmers, the intention to convert to organic farming is also predicted by a discrepancy between personal attitudes and the perceived group norm (Study 1b). Finally, among agricultural colleges’ students (Study 2, N = 280), the intention to become an organic farmer was influenced by an interaction between attitudes and perceived group norm and not only by independent effects of these two variables. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings for a better understanding of behavioral adaptation in times of social change are discussed.