How acceptable are intoxicated behaviors? Discrepancy between personal versus perceived approval.

INTRODUCTION: College students report high rates of binge drinking yet they reliably endorse elevated perceptions of drinking by their peers. However, the drinking norms literature offers little insight into how college students think about behaviors exhibited while intoxicated. This study aims to determine (a) if the predicted self-other differences (SODs) are seen among college students with respect to approval of intoxicated behaviors and (b) whether gender and race/ethnicity moderate these differences. We hypothesized that students would perceive others as more approving of intoxicated behaviors than they were themselves, resulting in significant SODs. We also predicted that women would have larger SODs relative to their male counterparts, and minority students would have larger SODs relative to their white counterparts.

METHODS: Participants (N=233, 63% female) were recruited from an introductory psychology course at a large public northeastern university. They completed online surveys that assessed demographics, and responded to a list of intoxicated behaviors with ratings of personal approval and perceived peer approval.

RESULTS: Perceived others' approval ratings exceeded personal approval ratings for 42 of the 44 different intoxicated behaviors. Women had significantly higher SODs relative to men and differed on personal approval. Non-white students had significantly higher SODs relative to white students, and differed both on personal approval and perceptions of others' approval of intoxicated behaviors.

CONCLUSIONS: Consistent SODs were observed in the approval of intoxicated behaviors. These findings may help to inform normative feedback interventions by revealing the potential for normative pressure, especially for non-white students.