Personal drinking and sociocultural drinking norms: A representative population study

Objective: This study examined relationships between personal drinking and perceived social norms for alcohol use. It was hypothesized that frequent heavy drinkers (i.e., those consuming five or more drinks at least once a week or greater in the last 12 months) would exhibit biases in sociocultural expectations for alcohol use. Method: A representative sample of Ontario residents who had consumed alcohol in the previous 12 months (N = 937, 51.8% women, mean [SD] age = 42.7 [15.2] years) compared their own alcohol use with the drinking habits of friends, coworkers and the general public, Respondents rated the importance of seven psychosocial factors that might define "problem drinking" and estimated the number of drinks social and problem drinkers are likely to have in different contexts. Results: Compared with lighter drinkers, frequent heavy drinkers (1) believed that heavy alcohol use is more normative in social reference groups, (2) overestimated the amount of alcohol that social and problem drinkers consume in different contexts, (3) rated several criteria (c,g., frequency of intoxication) as less definitive of problem drinking and (4) did not exhibit pluralistic ignorance (i.e., they shifted private approval of the drinking habits of others to match [mistaken] social norms of reference groups), Conclusions: Frequent heavy drinkers calibrate their beliefs about drinking in reference groups in order to view their drinking as normative. Results are discussed in relation to the development of brief public health interventions.