Pluralistic ignorance and alcohol use on campus: some consequences of misperceiving the social norm
Deborah Prentice and Dale Miller report four studies of students' attitudes to drinking on campus. Students consistently believed they were less comfortable with campus drinking practices than the average student, a misperception of the norm called pluralistic ignorance. The same gap appeared when students compared themselves with their friends. Over a semester, male students shifted their own attitudes towards the mistaken norm while female students did not, and students who felt more out of step reported more alienation from campus life.
Deborah Prentice and Dale Miller report four studies of students' attitudes to drinking on campus. Students consistently believed they were less comfortable with campus drinking practices than the average student, a misperception of the norm called pluralistic ignorance. The same gap appeared when students compared themselves with their friends. Over a semester, male students shifted their own attitudes towards the mistaken norm while female students did not, and students who felt more out of step reported more alienation from campus life.
Written from the abstract read 2026-10-11.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
doi:10.1037/0022-3514.64.2.243. Four studies; sample sizes not printed because the full text was not read.