Press Coverage

Here you will find sample press reports covering various aspects of social norms. Coverage is arranged chronologically. For more information or additional samples of press coverage, please contact us directly at (434) 982-6688, or by e-mail.

May 1, 2008
UH Boozers Fall Short in Surveys: UH Students Drink Less in U.S. College Survey
By Craig Gima, Honolulu Star- Bulletin

New surveys suggest that students at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, including freshmen and sophomores living in the dorms, party with alcohol less and experience fewer consequences from drinking alcohol than students at other universities...

August 5, 2005
Six Universities Say Social Norms Approach Helps Them Combat High-Risk Drinking
By Eric Hoover, The Chronicle of Higher Education

Proponents of social norms strategies to reduce high-risk drinking have new data to support their approach. During a teleconference on Thursday that was sponsored by the National Social Norms Resource Center, officials of six colleges discussed the findings of multi-year social norms campaigns. All said the programs were helping them change student's perceptions of drinking on their campuses in an effort to reduce alcohol abuse and its negative effects...

May 28, 2002
Social Norming May Be Strategy for Good Behavior
By Karen Thomas, USA Today

"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 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.

April 12, 2002
College Drinking Study Is Intoxicating Scam
By Steven Milloy, Fox News

"This week's news about excessive college drinking is another shocking example of statistical deception by shameless activists manipulating a media panting for sensationalism."

December 9, 2001
Social Norms Marketing
By Mark Frauenfelder, The New York Times Magazine
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."

June 18, 2001
How 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, 2001
Finding 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.

October 3, 2000
Colleges 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."