TAP THE POWER
of the HEALTHY MAJORITY!
of the HEALTHY MAJORITY!
with CROSSROADS Social Norms Campaigns
What the Healthy MajoritySocial Norms Marketing Campaigns Can Accomplish
Studies have shown that the normative beliefs that students hold about other students’ beliefs and behaviors are the greatest predictors of their abstaining from alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use. They are just slightly more powerful predictors than are commitment not to use and lifestyle incongruence beliefs.
Social norms campaigns like those that are part of CROSSROADS provide schools with a highly effective and visible approach to prevention. The CROSSROADS Healthy Majority Social Norms Campaigns begin by having CROSSROADS Peer Educators gather data from students in your school using the CROSSROADS Clipboard Survey. They then use the resulting “local” data to create a poster campaign that incorporates actual student responses and promotes a message that accurately reflects the socially-positive behaviors and beliefs embraced by the majority of students in your school. Social norms marketing activities like the CROSSROADS Healthy Majority Campaigns have been used effectively on college campuses for more than ten years!
The middle and high school environment is particularly promising for benefitting from this kind of social norms marketing. While most students hold generally conservative beliefs about the effects of drugs and the acceptability of using them, many still believe that the norms in their school are much different. In other words, while they may personally choose not to use drugs or may disapprove of drug use by others, they believe themselves to be the exception or in the minority. This is why young people often make generalizations like “Most kids at my school use drugs” or “Nobody at my school disapproves of marijuana.”
By revealing actual (real) local social norms, research suggests we demonstrate to young people that most of their fellow students really are making healthy choices when it comes to drug use. Students then have accurate information with which to make personal drug use decisions rather than relying on their inaccurate perceptions about what “everyone” is doing.
Social norms campaigns like those that are part of CROSSROADS provide schools with a highly effective and visible approach to prevention. The CROSSROADS Healthy Majority Social Norms Campaigns begin by having CROSSROADS Peer Educators gather data from students in your school using the CROSSROADS Clipboard Survey. They then use the resulting “local” data to create a poster campaign that incorporates actual student responses and promotes a message that accurately reflects the socially-positive behaviors and beliefs embraced by the majority of students in your school. Social norms marketing activities like the CROSSROADS Healthy Majority Campaigns have been used effectively on college campuses for more than ten years!
The middle and high school environment is particularly promising for benefitting from this kind of social norms marketing. While most students hold generally conservative beliefs about the effects of drugs and the acceptability of using them, many still believe that the norms in their school are much different. In other words, while they may personally choose not to use drugs or may disapprove of drug use by others, they believe themselves to be the exception or in the minority. This is why young people often make generalizations like “Most kids at my school use drugs” or “Nobody at my school disapproves of marijuana.”
By revealing actual (real) local social norms, research suggests we demonstrate to young people that most of their fellow students really are making healthy choices when it comes to drug use. Students then have accurate information with which to make personal drug use decisions rather than relying on their inaccurate perceptions about what “everyone” is doing.
CROSSROADS Healthy Majority Social Norms Campaign Kit includes:
Kit available separately or packaged with the CROSSROADS Drug Information Booth Kits.
Rather than trying to scare students, social marketing activities, like the CROSSROADS Healthy Majority Social Norms Campaigns, collect and publicize REAL local data demonstrating that most students use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs in moderation if at all.