Though few would question the prevalence of alcohol on college campuses, a recent survey reveals that most students overestimate the amount their peers are drinking.
A report authored by Wesley Perkins, a professor at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, and Michael Haines, director of the National Social Norms Resource Center, found that more than 70 percent of students overestimate the amount of alcohol consumption among their peers, regardless of the actual drinking norms at their schools.
Perkins attributed these results to a combination of various psychological, cultural and media factors.
"When we see somebody do something with little information about that person, we believe that this behavior is characteristic of their disposition," he said.
Perkins also noted that students tend to focus on the most extreme examples when talking about how they spent their nights because they believe this is what their peers want to hear.
"No one says, 'I can't believe how many people were sober last night,'" he said.
Haines said that even health advocacy groups contribute to the problem by concentrating on aberrant behaviors that actually represent a small portion of the student population.
"They focus on the two percent of students who get arrested for DUI and not on the simple data," he said.
Forty-four percent of students surveyed in a 1999 study from Harvard University's School of Public Health reported that they had participated in binge drinking - five or more drinks in one sitting - in the previous two weeks.