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Social Norming

Social norming¹ is a marketing strategy that has become increasingly popular in health-related marketing and campaigns over the past two decades. Specifically, social norming has been used as an intervention in response to the skewed perceptions many students have regarding the alcohol consumption of their peers. Although alcohol consumption rates are greater at college, the assumed norm consistently exceeds actual behavior and students believe alcohol use is far more pervasive than it actually is.²

Following the findings of H.W. Perkins and A.D. Berkowitz (1986)³, the first social norming intervention was employed by Michael Haines at Northern Illinois University in 1990 and has proven over the years to be very successful in increasing healthy behaviors.⁴ In the years since, many other colleges and universities have implemented social norming strategies and the approach has been applied to other social concerns.

Social norming committee

The social norming committee is a group of students and and staff, primarily comprised of peer health educators and Wellness Initiative members.

The poster above, displayed throughout the Fall 2010 semester, presents a social norming message from a positive angle. The aim of the message is to address a misperception of students and drunk driving.

1. Mark Frauenfelder (2001). "The year in ideas: A to Z.; Social-norms marketing." New York Times. December 9, 2001.
2. Perkins, H. W. (2003). The Social Norms Approach to Preventing School and College Age Substance Abuse: A handbook for educators, counselors, and clinicians. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2003.
3. Perkins, H.W. and Berkowitz, A.D. (1986). "Perceiving the community norms of alcohol use among students: Some research implications for campus alcohol education programming." International Journal of the Addictions, 21, 961-976.
4. Haines, M. P, Barker, G. P. & Rice, R. (2003). "Using Social Norms to Reduce Alcohol and Tobacco Use in Two Midwestern High Schools." In H. W. Perkins (Ed.), The Social Norms Approach to preventing school and college age substance abuse: A handbook for educators, counselors, clinicians (Chapter 14). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.