Three key impediments are identified as barriers to success in social norms campaigns against excessive alcohol use on college campuses: (1) attempting to correct misperceptions about how much others drink (i.e. descriptive norm) may prove ineffective, particularly among high-risk students who accurately perceive excessive alcohol use as the norm; (2) norms conveyed by these campaigns may not be salient in settings in which these behaviors typically occur; and (3) some students, particularly high-risk students, are not likely to feel compelled to conform their behaviors to the norms of a reference group with which they do not highly identify, such as those most commonly used in these campaigns (e.g., the 'typical"""""""" student). Two longitudinal, randomized experiments are proposed to test the impact of intervention strategies based on three potential solutions to these barriers: (1) correcting students' misperceptions of what most others approve or disapprove (i.e., injunctive norm); (2) featuring retrieval cues in the messages that are likely to be present in the situations in which the drinking behavior typically occurs; and (3) featuring the excessive drinking norms of an undesirable outgroup along with the healthier drinking norms of the """"""""typical"""""""" student. ? ? ?
| Goldstein, Noah J; Cialdini, Robert B (2007) The spyglass self: a model of vicarious self-perception. J Pers Soc Psychol 92:402-17 |
