Perceived Peer Drinking Norms and Responsible Drinking in UK University Settings

Abstract

Background: Heavy drinking is common among students at UK universities. US students overestimate how much their peers drink and correcting this through the use of social norm messages may promote responsible drinking. Objectives: We tested whether there is an association between perceived campus drinking norms and usual drinking behavior in UK university students and whether norm messages about responsible drinking correct normative misperceptions and increase students’ intentions to drink responsibly. Method: 1,020 UK university students took part in an online study. Participants were exposed to one of five message types: a descriptive norm, an injunctive norm, a descriptive and injunctive norm, or one of two control messages. Message credibility was assessed. Afterwards participants completed measures of intentions to drink responsibly and we measured usual drinking habits and perceptions of peer drinking. Results: Perceptions of peer drinking were associated modestly with usual drinking behavior, whereby participants who believed other students drank responsibly also drank responsibly. Norm messages changed normative perceptions, but not in the target population of participants who underestimated responsible drinking in their peers at baseline. Norm messages did not increase intentions to drink responsibly and although based on accurate data, norm messages were not seen as credible. Conclusions: In this UK based study, although perceived social norms about peer drinking were associated with individual differences in drinking habits, campus wide norm messages about responsible drinking did not affect students’ intentions to drink more responsibly. More research is required to determine if this approach can be applied to UK settings.

Keywords :

• problem drinking
• social norms
• peer misperceptions
• drinking intentions
• alcohol use

THE AUTHORS

Eric Robinson, PhD, is a research fellow at the University of Liverpool. His current research interests relate to social context and alcohol use—why is it often the case that people around us will influence how much we drink and why does this happen?

Andrew Jones is an experimental psychologist. He is interested in the psychological construct of disinhibition and how this relates to substance misuse. His broader research interests include the cognitive and motivational processes that underlie appetitive behaviours.

Paul Christiansen is an experimental psychologist. He is interested in the state influences on self control, particularly the alcohol priming effect. His broader research interests include the interplay between automatic and controlled cognitive processes.

Matt Field is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Liverpool. He studies cognitive processes in psychopharmacology, addiction and motivated behaviour. He has published extensively on a range of topics including executive function and implicit cognition in addiction, with a focus on alcohol use disorders.

GLOSSARY

• Social norms interventions: Interventions that attempt to alter perceptions of the amount of alcohol that one's peers consume.

• Perceived drinking norms: Beliefs about the typical drinking behavior of one's peers.

• Descriptive norm: Information about the behavior of other people.

• Injunctive norm: Information about the beliefs or attitudes of other people.