CHANGING THE PERCEPTION OF THE NORM - A STRATEGY TO DECREASE BINGE DRINKING AMONG COLLEGE-STUDENTS

A reduction in college students' binge drinking associated with an int ervention to change perceptions of drinking norms is described. The 5- year study was conducted at a public residential campus of 23,000 stud ents. A traditional intervention proved unsuccessful, but a media camp aign designed to change student perceptions of the amount of binge dri nking showed an 18.5% drop in the number of students who perceived bin ge drinking as the norm (from 69.7% to 51.2%) and a corresponding redu ction in self-reported binge drinking of 8.8% (from 43.0% to 34.2%). T he apparent effectiveness of this prevention effort suggested that cha nging college students' perceptions of drinking norms may lower the pr oportion of students who engage in binge drinking.