Journal # 14, “Binge Drinking”
April 22, 2007
the most interesting part of this reading I thought was about how the campaign wanted to correct students misperceptions about their peers alcohol consumption. it says if students knew the real statistice of how many of their peers really drank, then they would also cut down and there would be a drop in binge drinking. It feels like every kid out there feels that they have to drink because they think everyone else is drinking also. This is not always the case, there are plenty of kids out there that don’t drink. The word that everyone doesnt always drink has to be spread out there in order for people to believe it.
Ultimately that part of the reading was talking about affecting “perceived norms”. You’ll remember where percieved norms affect behavior from the next reading which we talked about in class. It’s similar to peer pressure, but much more subtle.