What's New in the News
Here you will find online versions of articles and editorials regarding the social norms approach and related topics gathered from both national and local news sources. As you will note, items have been posted in reverse chronological order.Note: If you are aware of coverage that warrants placement here, please send your suggestion to [email protected].
September 11, 2003The Exponent
The Campus Newspaper of Montana State University
Oops! Papers Retract MOST of Us Story
By Jeff Linkenbach
"Contrary to news reports, Montana'a MOST of Us campaigns were never part of an evaluation conducted by a Harvard University Researcher. The Associated Press has publicly retracted the misinformation printed in recent headlines ..." August 29, 2003
The Daily Illini
The Campus Newspaper of the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana
Label Is Nothing to Celebrate
By Michael P. Haines
An op-ed on the harmfulness of so-called Party School designations, as viewed from a social norms perspective.
Excerpt:
"The Princeton Review, one of the major resources for college-bound students and their parents, recently issued its "Top Party
School" designations. While much of the information provided by the Princeton Review is useful, the designation of which
schools are best for partying is not, since it undermines the work done over the years to address alcohol abuse and injures the
reputations of the colleges, students and the surrounding communities. How? By promoting a powerful perception that alcohol
abuse, illegal drug use, substance abuse and excessive behavior are the norm among the student body. If students think this
constitutes normal behavior, they may feel pressure to emulate it because everybody's doing it. However, that perception is wrong..."
The Capital Times (Madison, Wisconsin)
The Social Norms Approach Could Reverse UW's Party School Status
By Michael P. Haines
An op-ed on UW-Madison's recent designation as one of the top party school in the country.
Excerpt:
"Research has proven that college students drink far less than the public, campus administrators and even their fellow students perceive. In fact, nearly two-thirds of college students drink moderately, infrequently or not at all. Is the UW-Madison an exception? Probably not, but no one believes it, including the students..."
Footnotes, a publication of the American Sociological Association
Public Forum
Binge Drinking Prevention Research
By Henry Wechsler and Toben F. Nelson, Harvard School of Public Health
Written in response to Kerry J. Strand's article "Sociological Approaches Hold Promise to Curb Campus Drinking" published in the December 2002 issue of the American Sociological Association's Footnotes (see below, where a link to this article is provided), Messrs. Wechsler and Toben call for prevention efforts based on "solid theory, measurement, and data," and claim that "the social-norms marketing approach so favorably presented in the article has a weak theoretical basis that is isolated from other theory and has little empirical support."
Student Drinking: Reply to Wechsler and NelsonBy H. Wesley Perkins, Hobart and Williams Smith Colleges
Regarding Messrs. Wechsler and Nelson's claim that the social norms approach is "isolated from other theory," Dr. Perkins replies: "What could be any more grounded in a fundamental sociological perspective than work on norms affecting human behavior and the power of peer influence? What could be more in line with classic sociological tradition than pointing out our often inaccurate perceptions of what is normative, and how those perceptions of what is real become real in their consequences (W. I. Thomas) as a partially self-fulfilling prophecy (Robert Merton)?"
Regarding their claim that there is little empirical support, Dr. Perkins writes: "I recently counted more than two-dozen academic journal articles consistently demonstrating pervasive misperceptions and another dozen articles and published monographs providing evidence of positive impact with social norms interventions." Citations for two reviews of this literature are provided.
December 2002Footnotes, a publication of the American Sociological Association
"Sociological Approaches Hold Promise to Curb Campus Drinking"
By Kerry J. Strand, Hood College
[An excerpt is provided below; to view the full text, click on the title of the article.]
"Not surprisingly, sociologists have contributed in important ways to the large body of research as well as to public discussions about college drinking. Three of the most well-known are Henry Wechsler, director of College Alcohol Studies at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead researcher of their college alcohol study; H. Wesley Perkins at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, one of the developers of the widely-touted “social norms campaign” approach to reducing excessive drinking on campuses; and David Hanson, who hosts an award-winning website called Alcohol: problems and solutions (www2.potsdam.edu/alcohol-info) at the State University of New York-Potsdam, where he is a faculty member."
"While Wechsler and his Harvard colleagues suggest that binge drinking is a huge and worsening problem on campuses, others disagree. Perkins emphasizes that the harmful consequences associated with heavy drinking are not occurring for the majority of students in most contexts. Hanson goes further and argues that alarmist estimates of underage and binge drinking on college campuses are just that—alarmist—and that both underage and heavy drinking have steadily declined. He and others suggest that some of the problem has to do with definition and measurement issues, particularly the definition of “binge drinking.” "
November 8, 2002The Chronicle of Higher Education
Binge Thinking: Henry Wechsler Has Defined the Student-Drinking Problem, for Better or Worse
By Eric Hoover
This profile of Henry Wechsler, director of the Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study (CAS), includes a brief examination of the controversy surrounding the use by the CAS of the term "binge drinking" and the 5/4 measure, as well as a discussion of social norms.
All in all a very human portrait of "the soft-spoken Mr. Wechsler [who] is hard to picture as such a polarizing figure in his field," and who "did his first social drinking in high school, 'a few beers' with friends." Information is also provided about the extent of Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funding to the CAS: "About $5.5 million has gone to the project itself since 1992, with an additional $1-million for marketing, part of which Mr. Wechsler has used to contract with Burness Communications, a Maryland firm that handles much of his public-relations work."
May 28, 2002USA Today
Social Norming May Be Strategy for Good Behavior
By Karen Thomas
"The widespread impression that the norm for today's young people is drunken debauchery simply isn't true. Most kids are OK. It's the best-kept secret on college campuses, and a growing number of experts believe that keeping all this good news quiet is doing far more harm than good."
Prominent mention is made of the social norm campaigns at the universities of Arizona, North Carolina, and Wisconsin-Oshkosh, as well as throughout the 23-campus California State University System. The successful intervention at the DeKalb and Sycamore (IL) high schools is also noted.
April 13, 2002The Dallas Morning News
Colleges Offer Shot of Reality
By Linda K. Wertheimer
"Each university's statistics are different, but the message is similar: The majority of students do not get plastered every time they drink."
This article describes the social norms campaigns currently underway at several Texas universities. Among them are Texas Tech University, Southern Methodist University, the University of Texas at Austin, and the University of Texas at Arlington.
April 9, 2002
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA): Task Force Report on College Drinking
On April 9, 2002, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) issued its Task Force Report on College Drinking. In its section of the final report, the Panel on Prevention and Treatment noted that "several institutions that persistently communicated accurate norms have experienced reductions of up to 20 percent in high-risk drinking over a relatively short period of time. Together these findings provide strong support for the potential impact of the social norms approach."
In addition, social norms is among the so-called Tier 1 strategies recommended because of its proven effectiveness. "Norms or value clarification," it points out, "examines students' perceptions about the acceptability of abusive drinking behavior on campus and uses data to refute beliefs about the tolerance for this behavior as well as beliefs about the number of students who drink excessively and the amounts of alcohol they consume."
Significantly, one of the scientific papers commissioned by the NIAAA Task Force and published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol (Supplement No. 14, March 2002) deals specifically with social norms:
Social Norms and the Prevention of Alcohol Misuse in College Contexts
By Dr. H. Wesley Perkins
This article provides a review of conceptual and empirical studies on the role of social norms in college student alcohol use and in prevention strategies to counter misuse. The normative influences of various constituencies serving as reference groups for students are examined as possible factors influencing students' drinking behavior.
Although the Task Force's own news release acknowledges that "previous studies have shown that most students drink moderately or abstain," most coverage of the report has focused on several of its estimates--derived "by integrating a number of national databases"--of the negative consequences experienced by college students when they drink.
Below you will find a number of items (presented in chronological order) that have appeared in the national and regional press regarding the NIAAA report.
USA Today
April 4, 2002
Is the College Binge Drinking Problem Overstated?
By Laura Vanderkam
Questions the value of the so-called 5/4 binge drinking measure as "a completely arbitrary standard chosen more for headlines than meaning."
Wall Street Journal
Editorial
April 9, 2002
Boos for Booze
"Stop the presses…'Though common on many campuses, alcohol abuse does not run rampant among all college and university students,' declares an NIH press release, which goes on to explain (really) that heavy drinkers drink the most."
Christian Science Monitor
Editorial
April 11, 2002
Ways to Curb College Binges
"Campus advertising campaigns that emphasize the fact that most students, 60 percent, either don't drink or drink moderately have proven effective. Colleges have to dispel the notion that heavy drinking is the norm."
The Badger Herald Tribune
April 11, 2002
Everybody Isn't Doing It
By Alexander Conant
"This week's report is not the first to recommend so-called social norm marketing. Social norm campaigns operate on the logical premise that misconceptions and reality are highly correlated…Such campaigns are cheap, effective and honest-unlike some of the ongoing scare tactics."
Fox News
April 12, 2002
College Drinking Study Is Intoxicating Scam
By Steven Milloy
"This week's news about excessive college drinking is another shocking example of statistical deception by shameless activists manipulating a media panting for senationalism."
December 9, 2001The New York Times Magazine
Social Norms Marketing
By Mark Frauenfelder
The New York Times Magazine has selected Social Norms as one of the "80 ideas that shook the world (or at least jostled it a little) in 2001."
July 22, 2001USA Today
Facts Change Student Drinking
By Michael Haines, Director, National Social Norms Resource Center
"We've learned that by changing students' perceptions of what is 'normal' drinking behavior, we can reduce alcohol abuse. When students are armed with the truth about the moderate and responsible drinking habits of the majority of their peers, they tend to consume less themselves."
This op-ed piece highlights the effectiveness of the social norms approach in reducing college alcohol abuse. Mention is made of a number of institutions that have implemented or are about to implement a social norms campaign. They include: the University of Arizona, the University of Virginia, Hobart and Williams Smith Colleges, Northern Illinois University, and the California State University system, comprising 23 campuses and 370,000 students.
July 13, 2001The official summary of the July 2001 California State University (CSU) Board of Trustees' meeting began with a press release regarding the Trustees' approval of its Comprehensive Systemwide Alcohol Policy. "One key component of the [adopted] recommendation," this summary stated, "is the use of the social norms approach, which uses information campaigns to correct student misperceptions of peers' drinking habits."
For background information, see the Agenda of the CSU Committee on Educational Policy, which includes the Alcohol Policies and Prevention Program Comittee's Final Report (on pages 5-6. Note: This a pdf file.)
July 8, 2001Officials Fighting College Drinking
By Matt Bender, The San Bernardino Sun (California)
This article focuses on the expected implementation at Cal State San Bernadino of a social norm intervention to address alcohol consumption. Howard Wang, Cal State San Bernadino's assistant vice president of student affairs, remarks of the social norms approach: " It has proven more effective than just pointing fingers and saying, 'Thou shalt not drink.'"
Mention is also made of the anticipated adoption on Tuesday, July 10, 2001 of the final report of the Alcohol Policies and Prevention Programs Committee of the California State University's Board of Trustees.
June 18, 2001How to Manage Teen Drinking (The Smart Way)
By Jeffrey Kluger, Time Magazine
Although the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism has documented that "across every age group we've become an ever more sober society over the past two decades," concern over "youthful drinking" persists. This article discusses, in part, the role that colleges and college administrators have in addressing this concern, and notes the appeal and effectiveness of the social norms approach. The work of H. Wesley Perkins and David Craig at Hobart and William Smith Colleges receives special focus. Also mentioned are the social norms interventions at Northern Illinois University, Western Washington University, and the University of Missouri-Columbia.
June 12, 2001Finding Good in 'Normal'
By Lynn Smith, The Los Angeles Times
As the subtitle of this article states: "Students are getting a surprise lesson: binge drinking and other risky behaviors aren't popular." This lengthy and glowing article notes the successful social norms interventions at a number of institutions, among them: Cal Poly Pomona, Northern Illinois University, the University of Arizona, Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Western Washington University. Experts in the social norms field who are quoted include: H. Wesley Perkins, Pat Fabiano, and Michael Haines.
November 28, 2000New Method Tried to Reduce Drinking Among College Students
By Lynn Franey, The Kansas City Star
Discusses the successful implementation of the social norms approach at the University of Missouri-Columbia that began in September, 1998. Mentions the support of the Kansas Health Foundation for a similar intervention at four state universities in Kansas.
November 2, 2000"Uneasy Alliance: On Many Campuses Big Brewers Play a Role In New Alcohol Policies"
by Shailagh Murray and Bryan Gruley
from the November 2, 2000 issue of the Wall Street Journal.
Provides extensive background information regarding the recent interest of the alcohol beverage industry in the use of the social norms approach on a number of college and university campuses.
Unfortunately, an on-line version of this story no longer appears to be available. October 3, 2000Colleges Shift Emphasis on Drinking
By Kate Zernike, The New York Times
An excellent summary of the reasons for the growing interest in the social norms approach. "The premises of the new strategy," the author notes, "are that binge drinking has been exaggerated, and that by harping on it, colleges have pushed students into thinking that heavy drinking fits the model of the American college student."
September 8, 2000The Latest War on "Binge Drinking" is Against the Term Itself
By Scott Street, The Chronicle of Higher Education
Regards the recent decision of the Inter-Association Task Force on Alcohol and Other Substance Abuse Issues (IATF) to limit the use of the term 'binge drinking' to describe "a period of prolonged intoxication."
Note: The full text of the IATF Proclamation is available at http://www.iatf.org/proc1a.htm July 28, 2000Colleges Use Peer Pressure to Encourage Health Behavior
By Leo Reisberg, The Chronicle of Higher Education
A comprehensive look at the wide-ranging use being made of the social norms approach at a growing number of institutions throughout the country. Notes its application to issues such as high-risk drinking, tobacco use, sexual behavior, sexual assault prevention, and social justice issues.
1997Colleges Try to Curb Excessive Drinking by Saying Moderation is Okay
By Ben Gose, The Chronicle of Higher Education
"The vast majority of students," Michael Haines is quoted as saying, "don't harm themselves or others as part of their drinking behavior, and that's the best-kept secret in the country." The article explores the success of the social norms approach at Northern Illinois University and its subsequent use at other institutions such as California State Polytechnic University (Pomona), Montana State University, and the University of Arizona.
©2001 The National Social Norms Resource Center
www.socialnorm.org