Social Norms Are Changing – Do Your Students Know?

Social norms theory proposes that people’s behavior is influenced by their perceptions of how others in their peer group think and act. When people overestimate how much their peers engage in risky behavior (like drinking), they are more likely to do it themselves. Correcting this misperception can change their behavior. One of my former colleagues, Kathleen Kelly, used this theory to develop advertising to show students that fewer of them drink alcohol than they think.

Why does it work? Students often overestimate how much their peers drink. These misperceptions create peer pressure, not necessarily direct, but internalized. When shown accurate information, that fewer students drink than they thought, they revise their beliefs. This reduces the perceived pressure to drink and leads to reduced drinking behavior.

Perhaps we all help lower the number of binging student drinkers by sharing the information in this short article. You might share the graphic in “Americans’ self-reported drinking is at the lowest level since 1939,” (Sherwood News August 14, 2025) and “Here’s why Gen Z drinks less than older generations” (Yahoo, February 2025).

Of course we can also turn this into an interesting marketing discussion by asking our students how an alcohol (or beverage) company might respond to this cultural shift (Chapter 3) with new products (Chapter 9)? We have good evidence of growing non-alcoholic beers and mocktails.