Evaluating the believability and effectiveness of the social norms message "most students drink 0 to 4 drinks when they party"

Health Communication

Volumn 20, Issue 1, 2006, Pages 23-34

  Polonec, Lindsey D ^a   Major, Ann Marie ^a   Atwood, L Erwin ^a  

^a PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ADULT; ADVERTIZING; ALCOHOL INTOXICATION; ARTICLE; DRINKING BEHAVIOR; FEMALE; HUMAN; MALE; METHODOLOGY; SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY; STUDENT; UNIVERSITY;

ADULT; ADVERTISING; ALCOHOL DRINKING; ALCOHOLIC INTOXICATION; FEMALE; HUMANS; MALE; SOCIAL VALUES; STUDENTS; UNIVERSITIES;

EID: 33747220814     PISSN: 10410236     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1207/s15327027hc2001_3     Document Type: Article

References (49)

1. Allport, F. W. (1924). Social psychology. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
2. Baer, J. S., Stacy, A., & Larimer, M. (1991). Biases in the perception of drinking norms among college students. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 52, 580-586.
3. Borsari, B., & Carey, K. B. (2001). Peer influences on college drinking: A review of the research. Journal of Substance Abuse, 13, 391-424.
4. Campo, S., Brossard, D., Frazer, M. S., Marchell, T., Lewis, D., & Talbot, J. (2003). Are social norms campaigns really magic bullets? Assessing the effects of students' misperceptions on drinking behavior. Health Communication, 15, 481-497.
5. Cattarin, J. A., Thompson, J. K., Thomas, C., & Williams, R. (2000). Body image, mood, and televised images of attractiveness: The role of social comparison. Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 19, 220-239.
6. DeJong, W., & Linkenbach, J. (1999). Telling it like it is: Using social norms marketing campaigns to reduce student drinking. American Association for Higher Education Bulletin, 32, 11-16.
7. Dorsey, A. M., Scherer, C. W., & Real, K. (1999). The college tradition of "drink 'til you drop": The relation between students' social networks and engaging in risky behaviors. Health Communication, 11, 313-334.
8. Fabiano, P. M. (2003). Applying the social norms model to universal and indicated alcohol interventions at Western Washington University. In H. Wesley Perkins (Ed.), The social norms approach to preventing school and college age substance abuse: A handbook for educators, counselors, and clinicians (pp. 83-99). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
9. Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7, 117-140.
10. Frable, D. E. S. (1993). Being and feeling unique: Statistical deviance and psychological marginality. Journal of Personality, 61, 85-110.
11. Glynn, C. J. (1987). The communication of public opinion. Journalism Quarterly, 64, 688-697.
12. Goethals, G. R. (1987). Fabricating and ignoring social reality: Self-serving estimates of consensus. In J. M. Olson, C. P. Herman, & M. P. Zanna (Eds.), Relative deprivation and social comparison: The Ontario Symposium (pp. 135-157). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
13. Goodhart, F. W., Lederman, L. C., Stewart, L. P., & Laitman, L. (2003). Binge drinking: Not the word of choice. Journal of American College Health, 52, 44-46.
14. Grunig, J. E. (1983). Communication behaviors and attitudes of environmental publics: Two studies. Journalism Monographs, 81, 1-47.
15. Grunig, J. E. (1997). A situational theory of publics: Conceptual history, recent challenges and new research. In D. Moss, T. MacManus, & D. Vercic (Eds.), Public relations research: An international perspective (pp. 3-48). London: International Thomson Business Press.
16. Haines, M., & Spear, S. (1996). Changing the perception of the norm: A strategy to decrease binge drinking among college students. Journal of American College Health, 45, 137-140.
17. Hingson, R. W., Heeren, T., Zakocs, R. C., Kopstein, A., & Wechsler, H. (2002). Magnitude of alcohol-related mortality and morbidity among U.S. college students ages 18-24. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 63, 136-144.
18. Johannessen, K., & Glider, P. (2003). The University of Arizona's campus health social norms media campaign. In H. W. Perkins (Ed.), The social norms approach to preventing school and college age substance abuse: A handbook for educators counselors, and clinicians (pp. 65-82). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
19. Johnston, L. D., O'Malley, P. M., & Bachman, J. G. (1999). National survey results on drug use from the Monitoring the Future Study, 1975-1998: Vol. 2. College students and young adults. Rockville, MD: National Institute on Drug Abuse.
20. Kitts, J. A. (2003). Egocentric bias or information management? Selective disclosure and the social roots of norm misperception. Social Psychology Quarterly, 66, 222-237.
21. Klecka, W. R. (1980). Discriminant analysis. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
22. Licciardone, J. C. (2003). Perceptions of drinking and related findings from the nationwide campuses study. Journal of American College Health, 51, 238-245.
23. Major, A. M. (2000). Correlates of accuracy and inaccuracy in the perception of the climate of opinion for four environmental issues. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, 77, 223-242.
24. Mäkelä, K. (1997). Drinking, the majority fallacy, cognitive dissonance and social pressure. Addiction, 92, 729-736.
25. Marks, G., & Miller, N. (1987). Ten years of research on the false-consensus effect: An empirical and theoretical review. Psychological Bulletin, 102, 72-90.
26. Morris, C. W. (Ed.). (1962). Mind, self, and society. Works of George Herbert Mead: Vol. 1. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
27. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (2002). Alcohol: What you don't know can harm you (National Institutes of Health Publication No. 99-4323). Bethesda, MD: Author.
28. Noelle-Neumann, E. (1991). The theory of public opinion: The concept of the spiral of silence. In J. A. Anderson (Ed.), Communication yearbook: Vol. 14 (pp. 256-287). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
29. Norušis, M. J. (2003). SPSS professional statistics 11.0. Chicago: SPSS, Inc.
30. O'Gorman, H. J. (1975). Pluralistic ignorance and White estimates of White support for racial segregation. Public Opinion Quarterly, 39, 313-330.
31. Perkins, H. W. (2002). Social norms and the prevention of alcohol misuse in collegiate contexts. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 14, 164-172.
32. Perkins, H. W. (2003). The social norms approach to preventing school and college age substance abuse: A handbook for educators, counselors, and clinicians. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
33. Perkins, H. W., & Berkowitz, A. D. (1986). Perceiving the community norms of alcohol use among students: Some research implications for campus alcohol education programming. International Journal of the Addictions, 21, 961-976.
34. Perkins, H. W., & Craig, D. W. (2003). The Hobart and William Smith Colleges experiment: A synergistic social norms approach using print, electronic media, and curriculum infusion to reduce collegiate problem drinking. In H. W. Perkins (Ed.), The social norms approach to preventing school and college age substance abuse: A handbook for educators, counselors, and clinicians (pp. 35-64). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
35. Perkins, H. W., Meilman, P., Leichliter, J. S., Cashin, J. R., & Presley, C. A. (1999). Misperceptions of the norms for the frequency of alcohol and other drug use on college campuses. Journal of American College Health, 47, 253-258.
36. Perkins, H. W., & Wechsler, H. (1996). Variation in perceived college drinking norms and its impact on alcohol abuse: A nationwide study. Journal of Drug Issues, 26, 961-974.
37. Prentice, D. A., & Miller, D. T. (1993). Pluralistic ignorance and alcohol use on campus: Some consequences of misperceiving the social norm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64, 243-256.
38. Presley, C. A. (1998). National college alcohol, drug and violence survey. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University.
39. Prochaska, J. O., & Velicer, W. F. (1997). The transtheoretical model of health behavior change. American Journal of Health Promotion, 72(1), 38-48.
40. Reifman, A., & Watson, W. K. (2003). Binge drinking during the first semester of college: Continuation and desistance from high school patterns. Journal of American College Health, 52, 73-81.
41. Ross, L., Greene, D., & House, P. (1977). The "false consensus effect": An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 279-301.
42. Shamir, J., & Shamir, M. (1997). Pluralistic ignorance across issues and over time: Information cues and biases. Public Opinion Quarterly, 61, 227-260.
43. Stewart, L. P., Lederman, L. C., Golubow, M., Cattafesta, J. L., Goodhart, F. W., Powell, R. L., et al. (2002). Applying communication theories to prevent dangerous drinking among college students: The RU sure campaign. Communication Studies, 53, 381-399.
44. Stormer, S., & Thompson, J. K. (1996). Explanations of body image disturbance: A test of maturational status, negative verbal commentary, social comparison and sociocultural hypotheses. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 19, 193-202.
45. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2002). 2002 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: National findings. Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Applied Studies. Available from http://www.oas.samhsa.gov/nhsda/2k2nsduh/Results/2k2Results.htm#chap3
46. Valente, T. W., Hoffman, B. R., Ritt-Olson, A., Lichtman, K., & Johnson, C. A. (2003). Effects of a social-network method for group assignment strategies on peer-led tobacco prevention programs in schools. American Journal of Public Health, 93, 1837-1843.
47. Wechsler, H., Davenport, A., Dowdall, G., Moeykens, B., & Castillo, S. (1994). Health and behavioral consequences of binge drinking in college. Journal of the American Medical Association, 272, 1672-1677.
48. Wechsler, H., & Kuo, M. (2000). College students define binge drinking and estimate its prevalence: Results of a national survey. Journal of American College Health, 49, 57-64.
49. Wechsler, H., Lee, J. E., Kuo M., Seibring, M., Nelson, T., & Lee, H. (2002). Trends in college binge drinking during a period of increased prevention efforts: Findings from 4 Harvard School of Public Health college alcohol study surveys: 1993-2001. Journal of American College Health, 50, 203-217.