You mentioned that your friends drink as much as/more than you do.

However, I wonder if you ever actually counted the number of drinks they have over the course of an evening, or is this more of an estimate? [pause] It may be the case that your estimate of other’s drinking is exaggerated. There are a number of reasons why people assume that others drink more or are drunker than may actually be the case. Some people brag about drinking more than they actually have, and tell a lot of drinking stories; those stories stand out in our memory [saliency heuristic]. Also if you see people only in drinking situations, you can conclude that they are heavier drinkers than

they actually are [representativeness heuristic]. Whatever the cause of these

elevated norms, you may be drinking to match a level of drinking that is, in reality, lower than you think.

A minority of students estimate the SU norm fairly accurately or even underestimate it. In these cases, it may be helpful for the interventionist to draw a line on the bar representing the median if it will normalize the student’s lower estimate. Explain how the means can be drawn upward with a few very heavy drinkers, but that the median represents the midpoint of the distribution.

Identifying the actual norms provides a segue to connect personal drinks per week (presented in the first section of the PNF) to perceived norms and actual norms for drinks per week: Let us compare these estimates to your own numbers. . .

(a) If personal use is less than the guesstimates of other students (use judgment - if the student is a confirmed low risk drinker or a moderate drinker who is already exhibiting change talk – this section can be skipped), the interventionist can mention that the environment the student is currently in may be conducive to the development and maintenance of heavy drinking. “When a person thinks others are drinking much

more than s/he does, and feels that level of drinking is ‘normal’, it can sometimes pull a person’s drinking upwards, or at least make it easier to slide into heavier drinking patterns.” This type of discrepancy is an example of drinking norms at work -- the

participant is surrounded by drinking that is above average, and as a result may come to see that drinking behavior as normal - hence the word "norms". Mention the importance of knowing the “real” norms as a basis for comparison.

(b) If personal use is the same or higher than that of others, then the interviewer may find it useful to reflect upon this: So it seems that you regularly drink more than you

estimate others drink. . .What can you tell me about that? This may help to enhance the

participant's sense of discrepancy.

The interviewer should try to help the student understand (a) why these

misperceptions occur, and (b) the influence they can have on personal alcohol use. To this end, personal information can also be incorporated into the discussion of drinking norms. By this point in the session, the student has most likely provided information regarding his or her drinking environment, often when discussing the national drinking percentages. Students are often surprised by their percentile rank, and will frequently justify it by describing the drinking that surrounds them ("All of my friends drink";

"Everyone drinks on campus"; "A lot of my friends drink more than I do") Revisiting such information when discussing drinking norms can make the concept more relevant:

Script 15: In general, people who tend to socialize with others who drink heavily, or

more than then actual average, tend to overestimate what the typical amount of drinking is on campus. In your case, you mentioned that [insert their comment, e.g., most of your friends drink as much or more than you do]. It is possible that your friends really

are heavy drinkers. When we are surrounded by individuals behaving in a certain way it can lead to misperceptions of what is actually typical behavior. In this case, if heavy drinkers surround you, then you might assume that the amount of drinking observed is typical. That’s understandable. In reality, this drinking could be quite excessive when compared to campus averages. You may be surprised to hear that 19- 20% of college students do not drink at all (Wechsler et al., 2002). This is an example of how perceived norms can be higher than the actual norm. . . . [pause for comments

from participant.]

What you perceive to be the norm can be important if your behavior is influenced by your perceptions of what others are doing; if the norm is inflated/exaggerated then your drinking may be drawn upward to it.

When discussing norms, the interviewer can point out that although perceptions of drinking norms influence most students, the individual does have control over his or her actions. Knowing the real norm may help a person to remain in his/her comfort zone. In addition, because these influences are stronger in some situations than others, people react in different ways to the drinking norms that surround them. Finally, invite

comments or questions about the perceived norms section: Does all this make sense to

you so far?

It may be helpful for the interviewer to go into more detail on the potential effects of an elevation of the perception of other's drinking. Research indicates that heavy drinkers

tend to overestimate the amount of alcohol use occurring around them (Baer et al., 1991), the number of alcohol-related consequences that others experience (Baer & Carney, 1993), and how accepting others are about heavy drinking and related problems (Perkins & Berkowitz, 1986; Semenec & Carey, 2000). As a result, the

student’s choices may be influenced by exaggerated norms. Because perceived norms are highly related to actual behavior, misperceived norms may serve to promote high levels of drinking. Research conducted at SU has shown that the larger the self-other differences in perceived drinking norms, the more likely a student is to increase drinking over time (Carey, Borsari, Carey, & Maisto, 2006).