Exposing pluralistic ignorance to reduce alcohol use among college students

Research has shown that students' beliefs about alcohol use are characteriz ed by pluralistic ignorance: The majority of students believe that their pe ers are uniformly more comfortable with campus alcohol practices than they are. The present study examines the effects of educating students about plu ralistic ignorance on their drinking behavior. Entering students (freshmen) participated in either a peer-oriented discussion, which focused on plural istic ignorance, or an individual-oriented discussion, which focused on dec ision making in a drinking situation. Four to 6 months later, students in t he peer-oriented condition reported drinking significantly less than did st udents in the individual-oriented condition. Additional results suggest tha t the peer-oriented discussion reduced the prescriptive strength of the dri nking norm. The implications of these results for models of social influenc e and for the representation of peer opinion are discussed.