Personalized Normative Feedback to Reduce Drinking Among College Students: A Social Norms Intervention Examining Gender-Based Versus Standard Feedback‪.‬

ABSTRACT Descriptive norms, which are beliefs about the most commonly exhibited behavior in a group, are commonly used in normative interventions to reduce harmful drinking and perceptions about the extent of drinking among peers. The present study examined if interventions utilizing gender personalized normative would decrease subjects 'misperceptions and individual drinking behavior (frequency and quantity) more than both a no feedback control group, and a group receiving standard normative feedback. The sample consisted of 161 female and 85 male participants with an average age of 21. Results demonstrated that feedback decreased misperceptions of others' alcohol use, however significant differences were not found between gender-specific feedback and gender nonspecific feedback, suggesting that tailoring the feedback by gender may not be particularly beneficial. Also, reductions in drinking among the groups from baseline through 2 month follow-up were not observed. Implications of the results and suggestions for further research that might refine social normative approaches are discussed.