Psychological reactance and effects of social norms messages among binge drinking college students

Social norms campaigns have been a popular means to attempt to combat college student alcohol abuse. The strategy of social norms campaigns to correct misperceived, descriptive norms, however, has been controversial in reducing college student (binge) drinking. This study asserts that social norms marketing messages would have small effects on changing binge drinking college student’s drinking behavior due to the mediating variable of psychological reactance. Reactance theory predicts that when students binge drinkers perceive a restraint to their personal freedom they are likely to deny the legitimacy of social norms messages calling for behavior change. The findings show that the mediating psychological reactance variable is directly related to attitude and behavioral intentions respectively, with a stronger direct effect upon behavioral intentions.