Social Norms Campaign

Several years ago, the SMU Center for Alcohol & Drug Abuse Prevention began to take note of 'Social Norms' approaches to prevention on college campuses around the country. Social norms are those beliefs and attitudes held by all of us about what is normal, expected or appropriate in any social situation. The premise behind this approach to prevention is that all social systems (college campuses) have protective social norms (the majority hold pro-social attitudes and exhibit pro-health behavior) and the protective norms are misperceived (problems are over-estimated and solutions are under-estimated.)

This is well illustrated in the following news quotes based on the same research:

“Binge” Drinking at Nation’s Colleges is Widespread, a Harvard Study Finds

Boston - Almost half of all students surveyed at 140 U.S. colleges admitted to “binge” drinking, leading to everything from fights to vandalism… Wall Street Journal (12-7-94)

Majority of College Students Drink Moderately or Not At All, a Harvard Study Finds

Boston - A clear majority of students surveyed at 140 U.S. colleges reported moderate drinking as the campus norm resulting in relatively small numbers (only 9%) who get hurt or vandalize according to… National Social Norms Research Center

In 1999, we conducted our first social norms survey - a brief, 4-item questionnaire. We surveyed students on Friday about their behavior and beliefs about alcohol use on the previous night, Thursday. We asked the following questions:

Did you drink last night?
Did you get drunk last night?
What percentage of SMU students do you think drank last night?
What percentage of SMU students do you think got drunk last night?

The results confirmed that SMU students did indeed have significant misperceptions about alcohol norms.

Social Norms 1999 Graph

While only 20% of students surveyed reported drinking the previous night, and only 8% reported getting drunk, students believed that over 51% drank and 36% got drunk. The high-risk drinkers (those who reported getting drunk the previous night) had the greatest misperception - they believed that 56% of students drank the previous night and 42% of students got drunk.

We conducted another survey that year, asking student how many drinks they consumed per week. Here are the results:

Misperception of Norms Graph

Although 35% of students reported average consumption of 0 drinks per week, almost no students believed there were non-drinkers among their peers. The majority of students who drank consumed 2-5 drinks per week, yet the perception was that the majority of students were drinking 10-15 drinks per week.

Based on our early surveys, we ran the following ad in the SMU Daily Campus newspaper:

Did You Know Ad

At the start of the 2001-2002 school year, we began work on a survey of SMU Alcohol Norms. We developed a 95-item survey and, with help and support of the SMU Faculty Senate, administered the survey to over 1000 students in the Spring 2002 semester. We began to analyze data in the Summer and the Social Norms Committee reviewed results.

Dr. Alice Kendrick, Professor of Advertising Research, was contacted about this project. She expressed an interest and talked with Dr. Patricia Alvey, Distinguished Chair and Director of the Temerlin Advertising Institute. Dr. Alvey discussed the project with her senior Advanced Portfolio class. They were interested, and John Sanger, Director of the SMU Center for Alcohol & Drug Abuse Prevention, presented his proposal and a short 'Social Norms 101' briefing to the class. The class agreed to take on this project and accept the Social Norms Committee as their 'client'.

One month later, the Advanced Portfolio class met with the Social Norms Committee to present their ideas for an advertising and marketing campaign designed to correct these misperceptions about drinking norms. They had studied social norms campaigns used at other schools and wanted to develop a campaign unique to SMU. The class developed 13 posters in 4 campaigns for release over a two-year period. The first campaign was released 4-17-03. Campaign #2 was released Fall 2003, and campaign #3 was released Spring 2004. Campaign #4 was developed and completed during the 2005-2006 school year and was released July 2006 - March 2007.

Campaign #1 Spring/Summer 2003:

Click on an individual poster to view the larger, high-resolution image.
CAUTION - Images will take some time to load with a slower connection.

Special thanks to Etheridge Printing for their donation of printing and to Olmsted-Kirk Paper Company for their donation of paper for this campaign.

The results of the 2002 Survey of Alcohol Norms indicate that not only do SMU students overestimate the amount of drinking among their peers, but they also overestimate the harm and negative consequences caused by high-risk drinking.
For example:

Percentage of Students Who Drink Once Per Week Or Less

Perceived: 48.5%
Actual: 69.1%

Percentage of Students Who Average 0-5 Drinks Per Week

Perceived: 31.4%
Actual: 65.9%

Percentage of Students Who Drink 5 or Fewer Drinks When They Party

Perceived: 21.2%
Actual: 69.8%

Percentage of Students Who Drove Drunk This Month

Perceived: 93.7%
Actual: 33.9%

Percentage of Students Who Got In Trouble With Campus Authorities

Perceived: 69.7%
Actual: 3.1%

Percentage of Students Who Got Into a Fight Due to Drinking

Perceived: 78.5%
Actual: 6.0%

Percentage of Student Who Missed a Class This Month Due to Drinking

Perceived: 93.0%
Actual: 15.9%

Percentage of Students Who Do Not Drink Alcohol - Abstainers

Perceived: 0% (Day of Dialogue Survey), ? 2002*
Actual: 35% (Day of Dialogue Survey), 30.6% (2002)

(*This item was misread by a large number of students. Results were not valid)

Campaign #2 Fall 2003

Click on an individual poster to view the larger, high-resolution image.
CAUTION - Images will take some time to load with a slower connection.

Campaign #3 Spring 2004:

Click on an individual poster to view the larger, high-resolution image.
CAUTION - Images will take some time to load with a slower connection.

We re-surveyed SMU undergraduates Spring 2004 using the 'CORE Campus Survey of Alcohol and Other Drug Norms'. This survey measures prevalence and perceptions of students about alcohol and drug use, and will surveyed the reach and effectiveness of the social norms poster campaigns.