Everybody's not doing it: Misperceptions of college students' sexual activity

Objective: To assess perceptions of campus norms far recent sexual activity and to determine whether personal behavior was related to these perception s. Method: Subjects included 725 students who completed a survey questionna ire, which elicited information about estimations of the prevalence of sexu al activity and self-reports of sexual activity. Results: Males and females who estimated high levels of sexual activity among their peers were more l ikely to have had sexual intercourse in the past month than were those who made lower estimations of peer sexual activity. Conclusion: Students holdin g the perception that "everybody's doing it" were found to clearly be at hi gher risk of being sexually active themselves.