Experimental priming of peer injunctive norms and peer descriptive norms on personal alcohol attitudes, behaviors, and motivations

Abstract

Purpose: Several theoretical frameworks postulate that perceptions about social normative information could modify personal attitudes and behavior. The current experiment applied priming methodology to activate the mental representations of peer injunctive norms (perceptions about the attitudinal approval of friends) and peer descriptive norms (perceptions about the behaviors of friends) for alcohol on personal alcohol attitudes, behaviors, and motivations. Materials and methods: Participants (N = 470) enrolled at a university in the United States were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: peer injunctive norms prime (n = 159), peer descriptive norms prime (n = 153), or control group (n = 158). Participants in the two priming conditions were exposed to a series of item stimuli designed to activate mental concepts about normative alcohol attitudes (peer injunctive norms) or normative alcohol behaviors (peer descriptive norms). The dependent variables were personal drinking attitudes, behaviors, conformity motives, social motives, coping motives, and enhancement motives. Results: Results indicated that participants primed with the peer injunctive norms or peer descriptive norms manipulations subsequently endorsed statistically higher mean scores on personal alcohol attitudes than the control group. The descriptive norms manipulation resulted in statistically higher endorsement of personal alcohol behaviors and conformity motives than the control group. Conclusions: These findings suggest that simple and subtle thought accessibility reminders about other people’s alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors might compel social normative effects. The research offers implications about the mechanism of operation for social normative peer pressure on drinking attitudes and behaviors in adolescents and young adults.