Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 15, 2026
08:45
Modeling Alcohol Consumption in Rodents Using Two-Bottle Choice Home Cage Drinking and Microstructural Analysis
Published on: November 8, 2024
1.5K
Alcohol perceptions and behavior in a residential peer social network
Shannon R Kenney1, Miles Ott1, Matthew K Meisel1
1Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies, Brown University, United States.
Addictive Behaviors
|September 11, 2016
Summary
College students who overestimate their peers' alcohol consumption tend to drink more themselves. This misperception, especially regarding close friends, impacts personal drinking habits and heavy drinkers most significantly.
Area of Science:
- Social Psychology
- Public Health
- Addiction Research
Background:
- Personalized normative feedback is crucial for college student alcohol interventions.
- Current methods often rely on general campus surveys, not specific peer relationships.
- Understanding student misperceptions of peer drinking is key to intervention effectiveness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the relationship between misperceptions of residence hall peers' alcohol use and students' personal drinking behaviors.
- To differentiate the impact of global peer drinking misperceptions versus those concerning specific, important peers.
Main Methods:
- Survey of 108 undergraduate students residing in a campus residence hall.
- Utilized online baseline survey to collect self-reported alcohol use and perceptions of peer alcohol use.
- Employed network autocorrelation models to analyze data, accounting for social network correlations.
Main Results:
- Participants accurately perceived drinking levels of nominated friends but overestimated that of general residential peers.
- Overestimation of both nominated friend and global peer drinking predicted higher personal alcohol consumption.
- The link between misperception and personal drinking was stronger for heavy drinkers compared to non-heavy drinkers.
Conclusions:
- Student perceptions of peer drinking within social networks significantly influence personal drinking behaviors.
- Findings highlight the importance of addressing specific peer misperceptions in alcohol intervention strategies.
- Accurate normative feedback tailored to perceived social norms may enhance intervention efficacy.
Related Concept Videos
01:27CNS Depressants: Alcohol and Nicotine
1.5K
Ethanol, a clear colorless alcohol, has been consumed by humans for millennia, but its effects on the body are far from benign. At lower doses, it induces decreased inhibitions and loquaciousness, leading to its social appeal. However, it can cause severe consequences at higher doses, such as coma and respiratory depression, due to its zero-order elimination kinetics. Chronic ethanol abuse wreaks havoc on multiple organ systems, particularly the CNS and the liver. Abrupt cessation of ethanol...
1.5K
02:05Self-Presentation: Self-Monitoring and Self-Handicapping
45.0K
People can go to great lengths to protect their self-image and present themselves in ways that they want others to see them. Sociologist Erving Goffman presented the idea that a person is like an actor on a stage. Calling his theory dramaturgy, Goffman believed that we use “impression management” to present ourselves to others as we hope to be perceived. Each situation is a new scene, and individuals perform different roles depending on who is present (Goffman, 1959). Think about...
45.0K
02:32Physical Properties of Alcohols and Phenols
17.2K
Alcohols are organic compounds in which a hydroxy group is attached to a saturated carbon. Phenols are a class of alcohols containing a hydroxy group attached to an aromatic ring. The physical properties of the alcohols and phenols are influenced by hydrogen bonding due to the oxygen–hydrogen dipole in the hydroxy functional group and dispersion forces between alkyl or aryl regions of alcohol and phenol molecules.
Alcohols possess a higher boiling point than aliphatic hydrocarbons of similar...
Alcohols possess a higher boiling point than aliphatic hydrocarbons of similar...
17.2K
00:57Deindividuation
31.1K
Deindividuation is a form of social influence on an individual’s behavior such that the individual engages in unusual or non-normal behavior while in a group setting. Why? Because in these group settings, the individual no longer sees themselves as an individual anymore, disinhibiting their behavior and personal restraint.
31.1K
02:31Protection of Alcohols
8.2K
This lesson delves into the concept of protection and deprotection of a functional group fundamental to synthetic organic chemistry. These phenomena are explained in the context of aliphatic and aromatic alcohols.
Protection
It defines a protecting group as the masking agent to make the more reactive species inert to a given set of conditions. This concept is depicted via the illustration of liquid flow through different outlets in an assembly of pipes. The analogy helps to understand the role...
Protection
It defines a protecting group as the masking agent to make the more reactive species inert to a given set of conditions. This concept is depicted via the illustration of liquid flow through different outlets in an assembly of pipes. The analogy helps to understand the role...
8.2K
02:16Surveys
17.2K
Often, psychologists develop surveys as a means of gathering data. Surveys are lists of questions to be answered by research participants, and can be delivered as paper-and-pencil questionnaires, administered electronically, or conducted verbally. Generally, the survey itself can be completed in a short time, and the ease of administering a survey makes it easy to collect data from a large number of people.
17.2K