Welcome to the Web Site
of the National Social Norms Institute

The National Social Norms Institute opened its doors in 2006 at the University of Virginia, a nationally renowned public institution.  The Institute’s origins began in 2000 with the establishment of the National Social Norms Resource Center at Northern Illinois University.  Since moving to UVA, the mission expanded to include research, evaluation, and dissemination of information on the social norms approach to the field. Our goals are to demonstrate and facilitate the extension of the methodology to other health issues and other populations. The NSNI advisory board consists of prominent researchers and academicians in the field.

The National Social Norms Institute is made possible through a generous gift from the Anheuser Busch companies and its charitable foundation.

NSNI’s Executive Director, James C. Turner, M.D., presents ground-breaking study on the leading causes of mortality among American college students at the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting in Washington, DC

NSNI Grantee Dennis Martell, along with colleagues Hee Sun Park, Sandi W. Smith and Katherine A. Klein  recently published an article in the Journal of Health Communication entitled ‘College Students' Estimation and Accuracy of Other Students' Drinking and Believability of Advertisements Featured in a Social Norms Campaign’. The study examines the estimation and accuracy of normative perceptions for college students during everyday drinking occasions and highlights the importance of believability of advertisements featured in social norms campaigns for this demographic. For more, click here

National Social Norms Institute Board Member Dr. Clayton Neighbors
and colleagues have recently published an article in a recent
edition of Group Processes & Intergroup Relations concerning social norms interventions for light and non-drinking students. For more information, click here  

Congratulations to Dr. Kathryn Conley (KC) and Dr. Scarlett Schwartz, both of whom earned their doctorates from VCU and both of whom did dissertation research that expands the field of social norms.  Adrienne Keller, PhD, Research Director of NSNI, and Linda Hancock PhD, RN, Director of The Wellness Resource Center at VCU, served on the dissertation committees for both KC and Scarlett.

Dr. Conley’s dissertation, entitled “The Influence of Perceptual Accuracy on Willingness to Seek Help among College Freshmen,” explored the applicability of the social norms approach to a new domain of study:  psychological help-seeking.

Dr. Schwartz’ dissertation, entitled “Women, Wealth & Social Norms Theory: Financial Behaviors and Perceptions of Affluent Women in Their Prime Years,” involved financial security in retirement for affluent women ($250,000 or more of household investable assets) and social norms theory. 

Read more about these dissertations

Former National Social Norms Institute Board Member Dr. William
DeJong and colleagues have recently published an article in a recent
edition of the Journal of Urban Health: Bulletin of the New York
Academy of Medicine concerning the use of corporal punishment by
parents, their perceived norms and parental outcomes for its use. For more information, click here. go to summary

National Social Norms Institute Board Member Dr. H. Wesley Perkins and
colleagues Dr. David W. Craig and Dr. Jessica M. Perkins have recently
conducted groundbreaking research regarding bullying in middle schools
and social norms theory.  Results of the study can be found in an
upcoming article in the journal Group Processes & Intergroup
Relations.  Middle school students in New Jersey were surveyed to
assess their perceived norms concerning bullying behaviors.  Later, an
intervention strategy to correct misperceptions was implemented which
lowered the incidence of bullying behaviors in these schools. go to summary

Health Educator and NSNI Grantee, Linda Hancock
Receives  SAFE’S Annual Award

Director of VCU’s Wellness Resource Center is recognized with the Sharyl W. Adams Award for her efforts to reduce substance abuse among young people. Congratulations Linda!

A new video was released featuring Dr. Wesley Perkins providing a short (9 minute) overview of the social norms approach to health promotion.  Click here for WMV VIDEO format or MOV VIDEO format. (Note:  The MOV formatted version may take a few minutes to download on some computers.)

NSNI is pleased to announce that archives of The Report on Social Norms, a publication founded and edited by Dr. Alan Berkowitz, are now available on this web site. The Report was published from 2001 to 2005 in various formats, such as quarterlies and working papers, and is an excellent resource for early materials on the approach.

Individual issues and indices organized by author, topic, and title, in PDFs, can be found under the Resources section of this site.

Recent Research

An impressive number of articles were published last year concerning the role of social norms in a broad range of areas, including gambling, tax compliance, energy conservation, risky sexual behavior, and high-risk alcohol consumption. As always, complete abstracts for these articles are available in the section of our web site devoted to Recent Research.

Bertholet, N., Gaume, J., Faouzi, M., Daeppen, J., & Gmel, G. (2011). Perception of the amount of drinking by others in A sample of 20-year-old men: The more I think you drink, the more I drink. Alcohol and Alcoholism, 46(1), 83-87. doi:10.1093/alcalc/agq084

Buckner, J. D., Ecker, A. H., & Proctor, S. L. (2011). Social anxiety and alcohol problems: The roles of perceived descriptive and injunctive peer norms. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 25(5), 631-638. doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2011.02.003

Buettner, C.K., Bartle-Haring, S., Andrews, D.W. & Khurana, A. (2010). Perceptions of Alcohol Policy and Drinking Behavior: Results of a Latent Class Analysis of College Student Drinkers. Addictive Behaviors, 35(6): 628-631.

Doumas, D. M., Workman, C., Smith, D., & Navarro, A. (2011). Reducing high-risk drinking in mandated college students: Evaluation of two personalized normative feedback interventions. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 40(4), 376-385. doi:DOI: 10.1016/j.jsat.2010.12.006

Engler, J. N., & Landau, J. D. (2011). Source is important when developing a social norms campaign to combat academic dishonesty. Teaching of Psychology, 38(1), 46-48. doi:10.1177/0098628310390848

Fugas, C. S., Meliá, J. L., & Silva, S. A. (2011). The “is” and the “ought”: How do perceived social norms influence safety behaviors at work? Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 16(1), 67-79. doi:10.1037/a0021731

Gidycz, C. A., Orchowski, L. M., & Berkowitz, A. D. (2011). Preventing sexual aggression among college men: An evaluation of a social norms and bystander intervention program. Violence Against Women, doi:10.1177/1077801211409727

Göckeritz, S., Schultz, P. W., Rendón, T., Cialdini, R. B., Goldstein, N. J., & Griskevicius, V. (2010). Descriptive normative beliefs and conservation behavior: The moderating roles of personal involvement and injunctive normative beliefs. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40(3), 514-523. doi:10.1002/ejsp.643

Gryczynski, J.; and Ward, B. W.  (2011).  Social norms and the relationship between cigarette use and religiosity among adolescents in the United States.  Health Education and Behavior, 38 (1), 39-48. 

Haug, S., Ulbricht S., Hanke, M., Meyer, C., and John, U.  (2011).   Overestimation of drinking norms and its association with alcohol consumption in apprentices.   Alcohol and Alcoholism. 46, (2), 204–209

Jang, S.A., Rimal, R.N., & Cho, N. (April 2011). Exploring Parental Influences in the Theory of Normative Social Behavior: Findings From a Korean High School Sample. Communication Research. doi: 10.1177/0093650211407061

LaBrie, J. Hummer, J.F., Lac, A., Ehret, P.P., & Kenney, S.P. (2011). Parents Know Best, But Are They Accurate? Parental Normative Misperceptions and Their Relationship to Students’ alcohol-Related Outcomes. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 72(4), 521-529.

Larimer, M.E., Neighbors, C., LaBrie, J.W., Atkins, D.C., Lewis, M.A., Lee, C.M., Kilmer, J.R.,  Kaysen, D.L., Pedersen, E.R., Montoya, H., Hodge, K., Desai, S., Hummer, J.F., & Walter, T. (2011). Descriptive Drinking Norms: For Whom Does Reference Group Matter? Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 72 (5), 833-843.

Lewis, M. A., Patrick, M. E., Lee, C. M., Kaysen, D. L., Mittman, A., & Neighbors, C. (2011, May 9). Use of Protective Behavioral Strategies and Their Association to 21st Birthday Alcohol Consumption and Related Negative Consequences: A Between- and Within-Person Evaluation. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0023797

McDonnell, K.A. Burke, J.G., Gielen, A.C., O’Campo, P. & Weidl, M. (2011). Women’s perceptions of their Community’s social norms towards assisting women who have experienced intimate partner violence. Journal of Urban Health, 88(2), 240-253. doi: 10.1007/s11524-011-9546-9

Melnyk, V., Herpen, E. V., Fischer, A. R. and van Trijp, H. C. (2011), To think or not to think: The effect of cognitive deliberation on the influence of injunctive versus descriptive social norms. Psychology and Marketing, 28: 709–729. doi: 10.1002/mar.20408

Melson, A.J., Davies, J.B. & Martinus, T. (2011).Overestimation of peer drinking: error of judgementor methodological artefact? Addiction, 106 (6). 1078–1084. doi:10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03392.x

Neighbors, C., Atkins, D. C., Lewis, M. A., Lee, C. M., Kaysen, D., Mittmann, A., Fossos, N., & Rodriguez, L. M. (2011, May 30). Event-Specific Drinking Among College Students. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0024051

Neighbors, C., Jensen, M., Tidwell, J, Walter, T., Fossos, N., and Lewis, M.A.  (2011).  Social-norms interventions for light and nondrinking students.  Group Processes & Intergroup Relations.  1-19.

Neighbors, C.; Labrie, J.W.; Hummer, J. F.; Lewis, M.A.; Lee, C. M., Sruti, D, Kilmer, J.R. Larimer, M.E.   (2010).   Group identification as a moderator of the relationship between perceived social norms and alcohol consumption Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 24, (3) 522-528.

Neighbors, C.; Lewis, M.A.; Atkins, D.C., Jensen, M.M.; Walter, T.; Fossos, N.; Lee, C.M.; Larimer, M.E.  (2010).  Efficacy of web-based personalized normative feedback:  a two-year randomized controlled trial.   Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 78, 6, 898–911

Neighbors, C., Lindgren, K. P., Knee, C. R., Fossos, N., & DiBello, A. (2011). The Influence of Confidence on Associations Among Personal Attitudes, Perceived Injunctive Norms, and Alcohol Consumption. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0025572

Nguyen, N., Walters, S. T., Wyatt, T. M., & DeJong, W. (2011) Use and correlates of protective drinking behaviors during the transition to college: Analysis of a national sample. Addictive Behaviors, In Press, Corrected Proof. DOI: 10.1016/j.addbeh.2011.06.002

Nolan, J. M. (2011). The cognitive ripple of social norms communications. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, doi: 10.1177/1368430210392398

O'Grady, M.A., Cullum, J., Tennen, H., & Armeli, S. (2011). Daily Relationship
Between Event-Specific Drinking Norms and Alcohol Use: A Four-Year Longitudinal Study. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 72(4), 633-641.

Park, Hee Sun , Smith, Sandi W. , Klein, Katherine A. and Martell, Dennis. (2011). 'College Students' Estimation and Accuracy of Other Students' Drinking and Believability of Advertisements Featured in a Social Norms Campaign', Journal of Health Communication, 16: 5, 504 — 518. DOI: 10.1080/10810730.2010.546481

Pedersen, E. R., Larimer, M. E., & Lee, C. M. (2010). When in Rome: Factors associated with changes in drinking behavior among American college students studying abroad. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 24(3), 535-540. doi:10.1037/a0019863

Perkins, H.W., Craig, D.W., and Perkins, J.M. (2011).  Using social norms to reduce bullying: A research intervention among adolescents in five middle schools. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, published online on 7 April 2011.
http://gpi.sagepub.com/content/early/2011/04/08/1368430210398004

Perkins, J.M.; Perkins, H. W.; and Craig, D.W. (2010).   Misperceptions of peer norms as a risk factor for sugar-sweetened beverage consumption among secondary-school students.  Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 110 (12), 1916-1921

Scribner, R.A., Theall, K.P., Mason, K., Simonsen, N., Schneider, S.K., Towvim, L.G. & DeJong, W. (2011). Alcohol prevention on college campuses: the moderating effect of the alcohol environment on the effectiveness of social norms marketing campaigns. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 72(2):232-9.

Taylor, C.A., Hamvas, L., Rice, J. Newman, D.L., and DeJong, W.  (2011).  Perceived social norms, expectations, and attitudes towards corporal punishment among an urban community sample of parents.  Journal of Urban Health:  Bulletin of the New York Academy of Medicine, 88, (2), 254– 269. 

Walker, D. D., Neighbors, C., Rodriguez, L. M., Stephens, R. S., & Roffman, R. A. (2011, August 15). Social Norms and Self-Efficacy Among Heavy Using Adolescent Marijuana Smokers. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1037/a0024958

Wang, X., & McClung, S. R. (2011). Toward a detailed understanding of illegal digital downloading intentions: An extended theory of planned behavior approach. New Media & Society, doi:10.1177/1461444810378225