Campus alcohol program 'short on proof'

Harvard researcher Henry Wechsler reports that the "social norms marketing" technique -- which tries to reduce drinking by showing students that the vast majority of their peers drink less than most people think -- did not curb student drinking at all.

In fact, he said, in some instances it may have contributed to an increase in student drinking by telling those who don't drink that they are not part of the mainstream.

Wechsler's study, however, is unlikely to be the last word on the subject.

"Good science is born out of controversy," said Western Washington University program director Patricia Fabiano. "That's how theories get tested."

However, she said, social norms marketing is a "promising strategy and not to be frivolously tossed aside because of one study."

Western has used the method since 1997, she said, and she says it has led to a reduction in the number of students who drink more than five drinks in a night.

Fabiano, who oversees the prevention program at Western, added that telling students through advertising, posters and in groups that the normal drinking behavior of their peers is less than they think didn't coax abstaining students into drinking but did result in more students reporting they shifted down to one to four drinks in a night.

Nevertheless, she emphasized, social norms is only one of several techniques used on campus.

"There are no silver bullets," she said. "And if you go after (student alcohol abuse) as though there is one approach, you are chasing the Holy Grail. It just doesn't exist."

Wechsler said he targeted the method for scrutiny because it is "the most widely used program on college campuses these days."

And, he said, "college campuses use it without evidence of its effectiveness."

His study, on the other hand, included 35,000 students on more than 100 campuses and found "no decline in the quantity, frequency or volume of student alcohol intake. ... This program is long on promise and short on proof."

One of the specific problems with it, he said, was that many students do not care what the typical student drinks.

Jordan Armitage, a University of Washington senior who had seen social norm advertising on campus, agreed with that notion.

"I know people who drink 20 drinks in a setting," he said. "Drinking's always a contest -- guys want to drink more than their buddy. What a normal person does doesn't really weigh into that."

However, Armitage said, drinking is a problem among college students. "I've seen some really sane guys go kind of nuts." He has seen fights and even a gun drawn. Then there's the impulsive, even abusive sex.

"Guys try to get the girls drunk and have a billion tricks for doing it," he said.

While taking issue with Wechsler's attack on social norms, Mary Larimer, a UW associate professor and researcher in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, said, "Wechsler's work has drawn attention to the fact that this is a serious public health issue."

College drinking has been a problem studied for 50 years, she said, and only in the past 10 years has the issue garnered considerable federal research funds and the attention of more science-oriented researchers.

Larimer, who along with Fabiano is in the third year of a $2.5 million study looking into the use of social norms and other methods for curbing college drinking, said earlier attempts at scaring students didn't work.

And, she said, researchers have been using data about normal behavior as a positive way to curb extreme behavior for nearly 20 years.

"It's not a new concept in any way, shape or form," she said. In fact, "normative correction is one of the few things we can say is an active ingredient in changing behavior."

Social norms techniques are built on a history of solid logic, she said.

How that technique translates into a broad marketing campaign, where one-on-one interaction with a student is limited, is another matter.

"The jury is still out on this topic," she said.

P-I reporter Jake Ellison can be reached at 206-448-8346 or jakeellison@seattlepi.com

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