Welcome to the National Social Norms Center

Linking best evidence with best practice to promote effective social norms marketing campaigns to improve health on college campuses and beyond.

New to social norms? Click here for an a list of Frequently Asked Questions about the Social Norms Approach.

95,761

That’s the number of U.S. undergraduate students who participated in the

Spring 2016 National College Health Assessment survey.

PERCEPTION vs. REALITY

Some interesting items came out of that study. Flip the cards below to see the difference between perception and reality among college students.

Perception: 4.99

U.S. college students think other students consumed 4.99 drinks the last time they partied or socialized

REALITY

3.11 is the actual mean number of alcoholic drinks U.S. college students consumed the last time they partied or socialized

Perception: 14.6%

College students perceive that 14.6% of their college peers smoke cigarettes daily

REALITY

The reality is that nationally, only 2.2% of college students report that they smoke cigarettes daily

Perception: 8.6%

College students perceive that only 8.6% of their peers have never used marijuana

REALITY

Nationally, 60.3% of college students report that they have never used marijuana

Latest From The Blog

Instead of using scare tactics or stigmatizing messages, the social norms approach

steers people towards healthy behavior by letting

them know it’s the normal thing to do.

If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you.

~ Oscar Wilde, writer and poet