Drinking: Perception Worse than Reality
perception of student alcohol use is more exaggerated than actual
consumption, according to a social norms research project on campus.
Since 1999, NMU and 35 other colleges have participated in a national
five-year study funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse
and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the U.S. Department of Education. The
project looks at the effectiveness of the social norms approach
to addressing alcohol consumption among college students.
social norms approach collects data about individual alcohol use
patterns and individual perceptions of alcohol use among student
peers,” said Lenny Shible (Health Promotions).
“What you often find is that students assume there is more drinking
going on – and more of the high-risk variety – than the actual data
reflects. They tend to exaggerate, in their own minds, how prevalent
alcohol use is among students as a whole.”
has received about $20,000 in grant support from NIAAA and the U.S.
Department of Education, including $4,000 to implement a marketing
campaign in an effort to narrow the gap between perception and reality.
this project started five years ago, Northern was one of 18 universities
randomly assigned to the control group,” Shible explained. “We were
asked not to implement any type of social norms educational campaign.
The other 18 universities in the experimental group received assistance
in implementing campaigns. Results on other campuses suggest that,
by educating students about the difference between perception and
reality, it is possible to lower both the collective misperception
about alcohol use and the actual rate of consumption by individual
Each of the participating colleges has used a standard 54-question
survey to collect student data. Shible said NMU will soon conduct
the last of its five before implementing a campus marketing campaign.
Here are some highlights from the 2003 poll:
asked about the average number of drinks consumed in a week, 67
percent of NMU students reported having four or fewer. However,
when asked the same question about a typical NMU student, the perception
was that only 12 percent of their fellow students consumed four
or fewer drinks on average in a week.
to a question about high-risk drinking revealed that a majority
of NMU students – 54 percent – reported consuming four or fewer
drinks when they party. However, NMU students’ perception of peer
behavior was that only 2 percent of their fellow students consumed
four or fewer drinks in party situations.
a series of questions about concerns with their own drinking in
the last year, 22 percent of NMU students reported needing to cut
down on their alcohol use.
asked about reasons to drink, the responses in the “very important”
or “somewhat important” categories, in descending order, were: they
like the taste (73 percent); to relax (62 percent); to reduce stress
(53 percent); to unwind from work or school (45 percent); and to
get drunk (39 percent).
questions related to campus and community policies, about 70 percent
of students supported stricter discipline for the use of fake IDs
and for alcohol policy violators.
of the students surveyed reported serving as a designated driver
and/or trying to stop someone from driving under the influence in
the previous month.
asked about use, 24 percent of students said they had not consumed
alcohol and 95 percent had not used drugs other than alcohol in
the past 30 days.
good news is that most students are not drinking so much that they
cause other people problems,” Shible said. “The number of non-drinkers
is up and heavy drinking is down, but it is the smaller number of
drinkers on campus who are consuming the most alcohol and causing
problems. Education and awareness campaigns alone are not likely
to change the behavior of heavy drinkers. They will probably have
the most impact on moderate drinkers who occasionally overindulge.”
said his hope is that the data collected over the past five years
will provide the health promotions office with some valuable insight
as it plans programming and services for the future. The upcoming
social norms marketing campaign will feature banners, posters, advertisements
and table tents.
complete copy of the questionnaire and summaries of student responses
from 2000-03 are available for review in the health promotions office,
1205 University Center