What is it?
Social norms marketing campaigns are efforts aimed at publicizing actual norms of alcohol use among students. The goal is to correct students' inflated perceived norms of alcohol consumption, since misperceptions can influence students to drink more, and more often, than they might otherwise in order to fit in to campus culture.
Social norms campaigns generally address descriptive or behavioural norms (concerning prevalence of drinking practice in some form) or injunctive or attitudinal norms (concerning degree of approval of alcohol in some respect). They could also be directed at affective norms (re: the extent to which people are positive about their own drinking experience) or reflective norms (about the level of consumption or acceptance others prefer to see from people like yourself).
Level of research support: Some evidence of effectiveness
Why do it?
Surveys have consistently shown campus perceptions to exceed real norms among peers in regard to alcohol. A common presumption is that liberal use of alcohol is exceedingly popular among, and approved by, fellow students. Publishing valid statistics on the percentage of students actually engaged in or positively disposed toward various patterns of alcohol intake (and potentially also figures relating to real experience of outcomes and attitudes around responses to issues) can undo misleading impressions. A sustained countering of such typical overestimations of the extent to which alcohol consumption is approved and practiced shows some impact in encouraging students to align their personal opinion and use with actual norms.
This intervention is relatively inexpensive compared to some others, though for maximal impact needs to be intensive (seizing on a variety of media) and prolonged (sustained in a frequently renewed fashion rather than continuous).
However, evidence indicates that such campaigns are insufficient in themselves to effect a large-scale cultural shift on a campus, though they can in conjunction with other measures contribute to a climate change. Personalized normative feedback intervention with its more direct and pointed presentation of disparities (between an individual’s own position and perceptions and the reality among peers) has shown itself more potent in encouraging change in behaviour and outlook than the generalized message and implied disconnect that social norms marketing seizes on.
Who is it for?
Who can facilitate it?
How can we implement it?
These initiatives can potentially achieve a broad reach in altering awareness if the right steps are taken to achieve sustained impact.
Train personnel to find and use accurate data
There needs to be adequate preparation of personnel to enable them to implement a campaign in a knowledgeable way. Implementation involves careful collection of pertinent data, with local baseline data preferable for starters (to support relevance and facilitate monitoring of subsequent shifts). It also involves creating survey questions that allow for adequate analysis of the degree of misperception present on particular items of interest.
Use positive messaging that highlights real norms
Messaging needs to be succinct and consistent while making its research basis clear enough to dispel questions of credibility from those who may doubt findings that indicate a wide difference between perceived and real norms. Consistency demands a content and graphic presentation style that features a positive theme tacitly inviting students to associate with it, rather than highlighting negative developments and counterproductively normalizing them. In other words, focus on confirmed actual norms, giving little or no allusion to skewed perceived norms.
Repeat, repeat, repeat
While different particular lines may be taken up in succession, repeated exposure of a key message is advised before moving on to others in order to consolidate it in consciousness. Rewards can be offered as an incentive to recall and retention.
Use various forms of media
A wide diversity of campus media must be utilized in delivery to generate broad awareness.
Get assistance
Leading proponents of social norms marketing provide various helps to support more effective use.
Article: Social Norms Interventions
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