Social norms campaigns are ineffective in influencing college students' drinking behavior, according to a recent Penn State University study.
The study, conducted by Ann Major, director of the Jimirro Center for Media Studies, graduate student Lindsey Polonec and L. Erwin Atwood, examined the effectiveness of the college's social norms campaign "Penn State, Party Smart" in curbing undergraduates' drinking habits. Alongside the campaign motto, Penn State boasted the fact that the majority of students at the college drink zero to four drinks when they party, a statistic 73 percent of students did not believe.
According to Major, college students not only are doubtful of social norms -- they are unaffected by them.
"We found that students don't really ... connect with an estimate of the average college student," Major said. "When you say the majority, that really doesn't mean much, since students base their estimates on their friends or close associates. If their close associates are drinking five or more drinks, that's what they see as average."
Caitlin Knotts, social norms marketing assistant at the University, said that students' faith in the statistics is immaterial, since the aim of social norms is simply to initiate discussion of drinking behaviors.
"With the social norms campaign, it is not necessarily a necessity for people to believe in or not believe in the stats," Knotts said. "The nice thing is that it is a conversation starter. By having people talk about the stats, regardless of opinions, there will be opportunities for education and conversations about the behavior."
Second-year College student Lisa Hechtman said that while she does believe in the statistics, such as those presented in "The Stall Seat Journal," she finds the numbers misleading and rather depressing.
"There's a statistic that claims that 73 percent of [University] students stay with a friend who is passed out," Hechtman said. "What about the 27 percent who leave their friends? I don't feel like these statistics should be encouraging."
Major found that when norms include information about risks associated with drinking, some students are more likely to change their behavior.
"The risks of drinking too many drinks, that does seem to have some influence in underage coeds," Majors said, adding that "the hardcore drinkers, whether of or under [the legal] age" are unaffected by these numbers because they are not concerned with the habits of their peers.
Knotts countered that social norms are quite effective in changing behaviors of heavier drinkers, citing the camaraderie found in the Greek community.
"A common high-risk drinking group would be frats and sororities," Knotts said. "We have some data that shows that frats and sororities sometimes engage in protective behaviors in higher rates than their peers."
While there is a "greater pressure to drink more heavily" in the Greek community, sorority and fraternity members have yet to demonstrate true concern for their peers' safety when drinking, Major said.
"It seems to me like we have so many problems on campus where students go to the hospital because of alcohol poisoning, we have had some deaths and sexual assaults that occur in the Greek setting," she said. "In that setting I'm not sure they're really taking care of each other, or maybe they're just taking care of one another in that fraternity and sorority."
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