ASIX-YEAR STUDY by U.Va. has found that telling students the truth about their peers' drinking habits produced a dramatic reduction in the negative consequences associated with alcohol abuse.
Binge drinking, which the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines as "a pattern of drinking that brings a person's blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 grams percent or above," can be altered by "social-norms marketing" claims Dr. James Turner, the university's executive director of student health. Students (like most humans) tend to conform to behavior they think "normal." When they discover that their fellow scholars actually drink less than what they believed, they taper off on their own drinking.
Beginning in 1999, U.Va. started its campaign, part of which was called "Hoo Knew?" First-year students received information via posters in dorms and other ways that revealed the truth about drinking behavior. In 2002, the campaign was extended to all undergraduates, and by 2006 the study calculated:
1,972 fewer students were injured by alcohol-related events.
1,511 fewer drove under the influence of alcohol.
553 fewer engaged in unprotected sex as a result of alcohol.
Once students learned it really wasn't the norm to get plastered, they changed their ways. Social-norms marketing presents information in "a respectful and objective way," notes Dr. Turner, and students respond.
We'll drink (sensibly) to that.