What you should know about...

Background

• Our school is one of 32 colleges and universities nationwide selected to participate
  in the Social Norms Marketing Research Project (SMNRP), a major, five-year study
  funded by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the U.S.
  Department of Education.
• The SNMRP is being conducted by Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC)
  in Newton , Massachusetts , in conjuction with Golden Key International Honour Society in Atlanta , Georgia .
• Several colleges and universities have implemented social norms marketing
  campaigns with promising results; some have seen 20 percent reductions in high risk
  drinking after two years of campaign implementation.
• The SNMRP is the first true experiment to evaluate the effectiveness of
  social norms marketing campaigns in reducing high-risk drinking among college students.
• Through this research study,our school will be implementing the Just the Facts
  social norms marketing campaign, which was developed and pilot-tested by Golden Key to reduce high-risk drinking among college students

The Problem

• College amd university adminstrators have consistently cited high-risk drinking
  as the number-one substance abuse problem on campus. High-risk drinking is a contributing factor in poor academic performance, property damage, physical violence, unintentional
  injury, and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.
• Although high-risk drinking and its related negative consequences are a serious
  problem at institutions of higher education and a key concern of school administrators, few studies have examined the effectiveness of environmentally based prevention strategies. The persistence of this problem, coupled with a lack of scientifically validated strategies, points to a need for rigorous research to evaluate new programs and policies, particularly those that are designed to reshape the physical, social, legal, and economic environments in which students make decisions about their alcohol use.

How Just the Facts Works

• Researchers have established that college students tend to grossly overestimate
  the number of their peers who engage in high-risk alcohol consumption. This misperception is believed to influence students to drink more heavily by changing their perceptions of normative expectations(social norms) around drinking. In other words, students may feel pressured to drink because they believe that "everyone else is doing it."
• The basic idea behind a social norms marketing campaign is to turn this dynamic
  around by using campus-based media to inform students about the true levels of alcohol consumption among their peers. The actual levels of alcohol consumption among college students are much lower than students perceive them to be. Having accurate information about college alcohol use is hypothesized to lead to changes in perceptions of drinking norms on campus, and these, in turn, may lead to fewer students engaging in high-risk drinking.
• Using campus media (such as newspaper ads, posters, electronic bulletin boards,
  and radio ads), Just the Facts will feature positive statistics from our school which
  which illustrate that most students make moderate, low-risk choices with respect to alcohol consumption. A typical social norms message would be "Most (70%) of students at [School Name] have 0-4 drinks when they party."
• Just the Facts will use actual statistics from our school. These statistics come
  from the annual administration of Education Development Center 's Survey of College
  Alcohol Norms and Behavior to randomly selected undergraduate students at our school.

Benefits of Participation in Just the Facts

• A demonstrated reduction in alcohol consumption may, over time, improve levels of
  academic performance and reduce instances of physical violence, unintentional injury, littering, vandalism, and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases.
• By promoting student health and safety in this way, we hope to see an improved
  atmosphere and learning environment on campus in general.
• Social norms marketing is a popular and promising strategy to reduce alcohol use
  among college students. Our participation in the SNMRP will help determine if social norms marketing actually works. Rigorously testing the effectiveness of this strategy is important for advancing the state of the art of higher education alcohol prevention.
• Just the Facts will have a campuswide impact. Involving a variety of departments,
  offices, and student groups can strengthen connections and relationships on our campus. This is an excellent opportunity for students, faculty, staff, and administrators to work together to promote healthy and safe behavior among students and to attempt to effect positve changes
  in our campus community. Students engaged in this project will have the opportunity to develop leadership skills, work creatively, benefit from teamwork experience, and make a positive contribution to campus life.
• We will receive an annual, custom date report with our school's results from Education Development Center 's Survey of College Alcohol Norms and Behavior , as well as training and ongoing technical assistance to implement the Just the Facts social norms marketing campaign.

Just the Facts Campaign Links:

Social Norms Website
Higher Education in Social Norms