No one likes being told what to do. College students, especially, finding their independence for the first time, are not a fan of hearing what they should be doing. After all, everyone has the right to make a choice for themselves. So, it gets tricky when the choices we see students making turn out to be harmful. Sometimes, we just want to yell “stop!” But, in the end, it’s really not our choice. Yet, when we create social norms campaigns, we don’t have to tell anyone to stop making a harmful decision. Instead, we can make the less harmful option a much clearer option for them to consider.
At the National Social Norms Center, we work with a lot of data on college students’ drinking habits, hoping to reduce destructive drinking behavior we might see across different universities. At the end of the day, however, we can’t just tell college students not to drink or get drunk. Consider a favorite holiday among college students: Halloween. Halloween is often seen by students as the perfect time to dress up, go out, and drink, maybe drink too much. However, we can’t just demand an entire university to refrain from drinking when media, culture, and peers claim it’s going to happen anyway. Discussing consequences like getting arrested, failing an exam, or even alcohol poisoning are extremely important, but to someone getting amped to go out with their friends, unfortunately, it might come off as nagging or just a plain downer.
So how can we use social norms to keep vulnerable groups safe? We have to give them the most helpful information to make their own decision. As campaign designers, we have to acknowledge the fact that college students are going to do what they want to do, and that may include drinking. We can, however, avoid outright shaming students who choose to drink and still influence their behavior. We do this by taking norms data and letting students know the truth about what they and their peers are actually doing. A lot of times, not everyone is drinking or experiencing harms; and not everyone approves of these behaviors either.
Consider this scenario: Maybe on your campus, you’re worried about students drinking too much during a celebration, like Halloween or Spring Break. You can put out a message from your norms data saying that 60% of students cut themselves off before they drink too much, or 55% of students keep track of the number of drinks they are having throughout the evening. The students who see the messages might usually drink too much during these events, but now they are exposed to the norm: the majority of students are not doing this. Peers can be a strong influence, so when a student sees that most students are doing something different than them, they might reconsider their choices. On the other end of things, if a student does not participate in destructive drinking, they can reaffirm that what they are doing is, in fact, the norm.
Before you write your messages, though, be careful not to fall into a few traps. First, recall that we don’t want to tell students what to do. That means we can say something like “85% of students disapprove of drinking until blacking out.” However, if we say “85% of students disapprove of drinking until blacking out. Don’t drink until you black out,” you start to fall into the trap of being prescriptive. Let the student make their decision, but give them the information to make an informed one.
Remember that we don’t want students to feel ashamed of themselves either. For example, if we want to say that it is safer to stay with people you know during a party and encourage students to do the same, it’s more demeaning to say “Smart people don’t leave their friends during a party,” than “75% of students party smart by sticking with a group of friends while they’re drinking.” The latter message gives students information about their peers’ behavior and gives them the option to follow a “smart” behavior without implying that they aren’t smart themselves.
A good rule of thumb is to try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who may like to drink and party and ask yourself if the message seems off putting or not. If it does, try revising it to make it sound like the audience has a choice while, at the same time, the audience has information about what their peers are doing. Avoid prescriptive messages that include words like “don’t” or “shouldn’t” that make the choice for the student instead of letting them make a decision on their own. Finally, don’t be afraid to get feedback on your messages. Students will tell you if they find them helpful or even annoying. Social norm campaigns take time to reveal their full effect, but we can take steps to reduce some of the resistance that may initially take place by empowering the student to use the information how they want to use it.
Have questions about your social norms campaign? We’d love to take a look at your messages and give you feedback. Contact us at nsnc@msu.edu.
