Social Norms Marketing

Development of Social Norms Marketing

Social norms marketing was proposed in 1986 by H. Wesley Perkins and Alan D. Berkowitz when they analyzed the alcohol use patterns of students. Perkins and Berkowitz found that misperceptions of peer norms about alcohol consumption may increase tolerance for, and actual use of, alcohol. Consequently, they recommended that prevention efforts focus on providing students with accurate information on peer drinking attitudes and behavior. Students typically overestimate substance use and overestimate the permissiveness of their peers. Students, in reality, are more moderate in both use and attitudes, and more students abstain than others think. However, some alcohol consumption among young people may be perpetuated by the belief that "everybody does it."

Since the mid-1980s, there has been an increased application of social norms marketing programs to prevent or reduce alcohol use. Programs have been funded by federal and state agencies, nonprofit organizations, consortia, and, on occasion, the alcohol beverage industry. Social norms marketing programs have reported success in reducing alcohol use by as much as 20%, and at least two programs have been identified as model programs by the Center for Substance Abuse Prevention.

In addition to addressing alcohol use with social norms marketing campaigns, other programs have demonstrated the effectiveness of social norms marketing in reducing or preventing cigarette smoking, reducing drinking and driving, and reducing sexual assault.

Types of Misperceptions

Social norms marketing is used to correct the misperceptions or gaps in what people perceive are the attitudes and behaviors of others with empirical data regarding their actual attitudes and behaviors. There are three main types of misperceptions: pluralistic ignorance (i.e., the majority of people falsely assume that others think or behave differently than they do), false consensus (i.e., the minority of people with unhealthy attitudes and behaviors have the incorrect belief that many others think and behave as they do), and false uniqueness (i.e., the misperception of people who think there are fewer people who behave as they do or that their behavior is unique compared with the behavior of others). Social norms marketing has been shown to be effective in changing the behavior of the moderately drinking majority (pluralistic ignorance) and the heavy drinking minority (false consensus), and in maintaining or increasing the number of abstainers or infrequent drinkers (false uniqueness).

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