When and how does normative feedback reduce intentions to drink irresponsibly? an experimental investigation

Abstract

Objectives: To test the effects of exposure to a campaign to discourage drinking alcohol drinks down in one gulp (‘bolting’).

Method: Laboratory experiments assessed the effects of exposure to (1) the campaign (Pilot Study; N = 48), (2) the campaign combined with an injunctive norm message of explicit peer disapproval of bolting (Study 1; N = 78), and (3) the campaign and a descriptive norm message of low prevalence of bolting (Study 2; N = 96) on both normative perceptions of bolting and bolting intentions.

Results: The Pilot Study showed that the campaign had no effect on norm perceptions or bolting intentions. In Study 1, the campaign was associated with higher, not lower, intentions to bolt drinks, an effect exacerbated by the injunctive norm information. Bootstrapping analyzes of the indirect effects showed that participants perceived that bolting was more common when exposed to the campaign combined with the injunctive norm, and these negative descriptive norm perceptions were associated with stronger bolting intentions. In contrast, Study 2 showed that addition of the descriptive norm (i.e. low prevalence information) enhanced the effectiveness of the campaign.

Conclusions: The results highlight the potentially harmful effects of exposure to an injunctive norm message of disapproval information and distinguish them from the beneficial impact of exposure to a descriptive norm message of low prevalence. The importance of pre-testing campaigns and providing process evaluations is discussed.

Keywords:

• Injunctive norms
• descriptive norms
• campaigns
• drinking behavior
• process evaluation

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Hannah Earle, Lucy Godding, Danielle Floyd, Hayley McNamee, Katherine Thornton, and Sarah West who collected the data for these studies.

Notes

1 Other names for this behavior include ‘chugging’, ‘sculling’, or ‘skolling’.

2 The campaign was developed by the students’ association following the alcohol-related death of a student during an initiation event involving drinking games and bolting. The campaign materials were not, however, being disseminated or displayed during the period of data collection.

3 ‘Lash, Banter, and Bolt’ are well understood terms among the target audience: ‘lash’ means a night out drinking with friends and banter means talking to others sociably. Thus, the intended message of the campaign was ‘having a drink and a chat with friends is fine, but bolting drinks will lead to negative consequences’.

4 There were no main or interactive effects on injunctive norm perceptions and so it was not tested as a potential mediator.

5 As in Study 1, there were no main or interactive effects on injunctive norm perceptions and so it was not tested as a potential mediator.

6 Model 8 was also tested as in Study 1. However, the campaign × descriptive norm information interaction on the mediator was not significant (B = −.097, p = .459, LLCI = −.356, ULCI = .162). Further, the index of moderated mediation was also not significant (B = −.084, SE(Boot) = .110, LLCI = −.305, ULCI = .13), indicating that the conditional indirect effects were equivalent across the two groups.

7 An additional analysis was performed to test for differences between the control condition and the campaign only conditions by combining the responses for all participants in the control conditions (n =  67) and all participants in the campaign only conditions (n =  71) across the three studies (N =  138). Analysis revealed no difference between the control condition and the campaign condition on injunctive norm perceptions (F(1,135) =  0.20, p = .65, η²_p = .002), descriptive norm perceptions (F(1,135) =  0.02, p = .88, η²_p = .000), or bolting intentions (F(1,136) = .35, p = .55, η²_p = .003).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by an Australian Research Council grant awarded to JS and WL (DP0877146). The work was partially funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care of the South West Peninsula (PenCLAHRC; to CA) but the views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily those of NIHR or the UK Department of Health.