To the Editor:
Researchers (including researchers at Princeton using Princeton students) have established that people tend to grossly overestimate the number of their peers who engage in high-risk alcohol consumption. This misperception has been shown to influence college students to drink more heavily. In other words, students may feel pressured to drink because they believe that "everyone else is doing it."
Social norms marketing seeks to reverse this dynamic by using campus-based media to inform students about the true levels of alcohol consumption among their peers, as the actual levels of alcohol consumption among college students tend to be much lower than students perceive them to be. Accurate information about college alcohol use can lead to changes in perceptions of drinking norms and, in turn, may lead to fewer students engaging in high-risk drinking. Student perceptions of the norm are only one aspect of how students make drinking decisions, but it is an important one.
Campus media campaigns (such as newspaper ads, posters and Nalgene bottles) feature positive statistics about Dartmouth students who are making low-risk choices about alcohol consumption. Student survey data is collected by the Office of Evaluation and Research. Dartmouth students are then invited to review the data and assist in creating social norms messages. Those messages, in turn, are further tested by Dartmouth students for both believability and interpretation.
In response to a recent article ("Stats class questions social norms," The Dartmouth, May 25) questioning the validity of the statistic that appears on both Nalgene bottles and corresponding posters, 13 percent of the survey respondents said that one of the important reasons for them to drink is to "fit in." Therefore, 87 percent do not say that drinking to fit in is an important reason to drink. In an attempt to make that less awkward and more understandable, the following message was derived: 87 percent of Dartmouth students don't feel the need to drink in order to "fit in."
Much of the purpose behind social norms marketing is to encourage ongoing dialogue about alcohol within the Dartmouth community and to assist students in evaluating the role that alcohol plays in their lives. The messages themselves serve to reduce the risks associated with high-risk drinking episodes and in turn, promote normative protective factors that students can employ to lower their risk of experiencing negative consequences associated with alcohol consumption.
Social norms are just one component of the larger comprehensive substance abuse prevention and education initiatives at Dartmouth, including first-year student orientation speaker Mike Green, Alcohol EDU, Server/Monitor/Host Training, Drug and Alcohol Peer Advisor (DAPA) Training and programs targeted for specific populations (athletics, Greek organizations, residence halls and affinity houses). One of the overarching goals for our alcohol and drug education efforts is to match programs and initiatives to specific student groups.
