Testing the Effect of Social Norms Theory-based Interventions: Are they Harmful for University Students who Drink Less than the Peer Norm?

Background. Social norms theory-based interventions have been widely used to reduce alcohol consumption among college and university students. Lately, it has been argued that such interventions may actually increase alcohol use among light drinkers. However, little studies have been focused on testing this possible negative effect. Objectives. The aim of this study was to examine possible negative impact of descriptive normative feedback (DNF) on drinking intentions among students whose baseline drinking scores were below the average of a reference group. We also studied the preventive effect of injunctive normative feedback (INF). Methods. Actual descriptive and injunctive norms were collected from 234 university students. From those who reported drinking below the norm, 26 were randomly assigned to a control or intervention condition that received normative feedback via PowerPoint presentations over two meetings. Results. DNF increased students’ intentions of spirits drinking frequency and quantity. Meanwhile intentions to drink beer, cider, wine and cocktails remained the same. Increased intentions to drink spirits were not reduced by INF. Conclusions. Findings suggest that DNF-based interventions might negatively affect the use of spirits among those students who consume less than their peer norm by increasing their intentions to drink spirits more often and in larger quantities. Ways other than the INF to prevent this negative effect need to be further explored.

What’s there to like? The causal effects of alcohol-related Facebook posts on drinking behavior (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Adolescents and young adults frequently post alcohol-related content (i.e., alcoholposts) on social media. This is problematic, because both social norms theory and social learning theory suggest that viewing alcoholposts could increase drinking behavior. It is therefore paramount to understand the effects of alcoholposts on their viewers. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate the causal effects of exposure to alcoholposts on alcohol consumption by employing a rigorous design. METHODS We conducted a longitudinal study (6 weeks), during which alcoholposts were measured by a newly developed app that copied participants’ (N = 281) Facebook posts to a new secure social media environment. Daily questionnaires assessed alcohol use. Effects of existing alcoholposts were assessed in Phase 1, and effects of experimental posts (i.e., posted by fake participants) were explored in Phase 2. RESULTS Results showed that existing alcoholposts increased the occurrence and quantity of drinking the following day. That is, exposure to a single additional alcoholpost increased the log odds of drinking the next day by 0.27 (b = 0.27, CI = [0.18, 0.35]). Furthermore, the number of alcoholposts also had a positive (predictive) effect on the number of glasses drunk the next day (b = 0.21, CI = [0.14, 0.29]). In Phase 2, when experimental posts were also present, these effects decreased. Experimental posts themselves had hardly any effects. CONCLUSIONS This study illustrates clear and direct causal effects of alcoholposts on next day alcohol consumption and suggest that alcoholposts represent an important societal problem that interventions need to address.

Prevalence of Campus Rape

Most administrators of colleges and universities are aware of the statistics about the prevalence of campus sexual assault and rape. Campus sexual assault and rape have the potential for ruining the lives of both victims and perpetrators. The authors suggest that educators, administrators, and strategic leadership teams need to understand how social norms theory, sports, and rape culture play into the prevalence of campus sexual assault and rape on students' ability to thrive in and complete college and the need to adopt a proactive stance whereby they can help to offset the negative outcomes for the students involved while at the same time focusing on the legal and risk management impact of neglecting to establish and/or non-enforcement of policies to both prevent and address campus sexual assault and rape. Many educators and administrators fail to understand the potential costs of Title IX violations and benefits to colleges and universities from the violence against women laws, especially the Amended Clery Act. Lastly, recommendations are forthcoming in helping leaders and risk management employees be proactive and strategically plan to reduce and address the occurrences of campus sexual assault and rapes.

Why Employees Contribute to Pro-Environmental Behaviour: The Role of Pluralistic Ignorance in Chinese Society

In light of the importance of sustainable development, this study aims to deepen and extend our understanding of employees’ pro-environmental behaviour in the workplace in a Chinese context. Drawing on the complex phenomenon of social norms theory concerning misperceptions (i.e., pluralistic ignorance) and supervisor–subordinate guanxi (which is a Chinese term signifying human connection), we present a novel model in which employees’ pro-environmental behaviour is the result of multiple social and individual psychological factors. Through the integration of previous literature from the fields of the psychology of individuals, social psychology, and environmental psychology, the major assumption is that the pro-environmental behaviour of employees is affected by their level of pluralistic ignorance, environmental concern, and subjective norms; these, in turn, are influenced by supervisor–subordinate guanxi and social identity in the collective spirit of Chinese society. Data, which were analysed empirically, were gathered from 548 Chinese employees from the Jiangsu province of China. This study consequently reveals the subtle interplay among employees’ pluralistic ignorance, supervisor–subordinate guanxi, social identity, subjective norms, environmental concern, and their pro-environmental behaviour, while the deeper analysis offers considerable support for environmental management research and practice.

Gender-Transformative Approaches to Engaging Men in Reducing Gender-Based Violence: A Response to Brush & Miller’s “Trouble in Paradigm”

Brush and Miller’s paper is critical of gender-transformative interventions and they believe that the paradigm is in trouble. In this response, we examine the body of evidence and the conceptual frames that undergird gender-transformative interventions, along with the emergence of these interventions and their efficacy. We argue here that it is reductionist to state either (a) that gender-transformative programs do not work, or (b) that gender-transformative programs only rely on social norms theory. We reveal how these claims omit important developments emerging from research on homophobia, feminist thought, and intersectionality that have made their way into gender-transformative interventions in several countries. We show that the implementation of gender-transformative interventions is far from uniform and we examine how changing power relations, relationships, communities, and masculinities, as well as other structures and practices that negatively influence health and well-being are integrated into this large body of work. We highlight how gender-transformative interventions show solid promise on balance, as measured in several evaluation studies in several settings, when implemented well and sustained. Overall then, gender-transformative interventions represent a tremendous advance over the previous “risk group-focused,” single-topic approaches with men that have been implemented in public and global health interventions.

The Intervention Initiative: theoretical underpinnings, development and implementation

This chapter examines the theoretical underpinnings, development and implementation of The Intervention Initiative (TII), a public health intervention toolkit developed at the University of the West of England for use by all universities in the prevention of sexual and domestic violence (SDV). TII is an evidence-based programme predicated on bystander theories, social norms theory, the criteria for effective prevention programming, and the transtheoretical model of behaviour change (TTM). The chapter first considers intermediate outcome measures (for example, sexist attitudes, denial of violence as a problem, knowledge about violence) that can be used to evaluate bystander programmes for university settings. It then discusses the evidence base and the theoretical rationale for TII to demonstrate how it takes participants through each stage of change required for bystanders to intervene. It also offers policy recommendations for further implementation of the programme in the context of current agendas for the university sector.

Using social norms theory for health promotion in low-income countries

Summary Social norms can greatly influence people’s health-related choices and behaviours. In the last few years, scholars and practitioners working in low- and mid-income countries (LMIC) have increasingly been trying to harness the influence of social norms to improve people’s health globally. However, the literature informing social norm interventions in LMIC lacks a framework to understand how norms interact with other factors that sustain harmful practices and behaviours. This gap has led to short-sighted interventions that target social norms exclusively without a wider awareness of how other institutional, material, individual and social factors affect the harmful practice. Emphasizing norms to the exclusion of other factors might ultimately discredit norms-based strategies, not because they are flawed but because they alone are not sufficient to shift behaviour. In this paper, we share a framework (already adopted by some practitioners) that locates norm-based strategies within the wider array of factors that must be considered when designing prevention programmes in LMIC.