Everybody's Doing It

Despite the fact that social reform campaigns drill in adolescents that “everyone is not doing it” and to live “above the influence,” surveys reveal that “80% to 90% of all college students consume alcoholic beverages” (Behavior Modification). Social scientists have been studying the effects of alcohol on university students for many years. Because social science concerns the scientific study of behavior in social settings, an innovative group of scientists have spent a considerable amount of time creating an experiment to alter alcohol influenced behavior at college fraternity parties. In 2001, an interventional study occurred at Virginia Tech University. First, students were openly invited to fraternity parties and after an hour, researchers measured their blood alcohol content with a breathalyzer. Two of these parties occurred in the same fashion and then two parties were held where attending students were given notice that they would be breathalized during the party and informed that if their measure of alcohol intoxication was less than .05, they would be entered into a raffle for a monetary prize. The Virginia Tech experiment is different than preceding experiments because students were presented with an incentive to decrease alcohol consumption and their intoxication level was directly measured by an official. By performing this experiment, researchers accomplished measuring the blood alcohol level of partygoers at a normal fraternity party, decreasing the levels of students’ blood alcohol content by almost half, and evaluating the intensity of alcohol consumption between Greeks and non-Greeks.

Before scientists could effectively devise a plan to decrease alcohol consumption at college parties, they needed to know the current, uninfluenced level of consumption. The first two parties, called “baseline parties,” began as any normal party would. They took place at the same off-campus fraternity house and the party was open to any student of the university, Greek or non-Greek. Two hours after the party began, researches in casual clothes dispersed throughout the house and asked students if they would test their BAC for data collection. Each student was only allowed to submit one BAC and survey about themselves. Of the students at the parties, 96 were sampled at the first and 83 at the second uncontrolled party. The mean BAC at these parties was around .095, where the legal BAC is .08. Prior research from social scientists has revealed that most college-aged drinkers are abusers of alcohol rather than dependants. For this reason, researchers have set their target BAC for students to be .05. At this level students receive the benefit of relaxation and a more eased social interaction, but they still have the control necessary for avoiding physical violence, property damage, automobile accidents, unsafe sexual activities, and poor academic performance. After noting the normal BAC at a college party, scientists prepared to implement a strategy to decrease intoxication levels in the future.

The second set of parties was referred to as “intervention parties” and students were notified by flier upon entry that there would be an incentive for keeping their BAC below the target of .05. Several suggestions for reducing BAC were given under the incentive, including drinking water and eating snacks between drinks. To aid students in keeping their BAC down, a chart was printed on the back side of the flyer that illustrated how to calculate BAC given a specific weight and number of drinks. Just as before, two hours into the party, researchers positioned themselves throughout the house and measured BACs along with demographics such as Greek affiliation and gender. Those partyers whose BAC measured .05 or less were given a raffle ticket to win one hundred dollars at the end of the party. 86 students were sampled at the first intervention and 91 at the second. This time, the mean BAC was around .055, a significant drop from the baseline parties. The number of legally intoxicated students at the intervention parties was between 22% and 30%, compared to between 54% and 63% at the baseline parties. By providing an incentive for keeping BAC at the target level, the researchers proved that drinking at university parties could be reduced by almost 50%.

Another aspect of the research experiment was the difference in alcohol consumption between students involved in the Greek system and those uninvolved. Social experts have publicized the debate over whether the Greek system breeds alcohol abusers or attracts abusers of alcohol. No matter the actual answer, students in the Greek system have professed that they drink more alcohol during any given week, drink more heavily at any given time, and, therefore, suffer more drastic consequences than those students who are uninvolved with Greek life. At the baseline parties, the average BAC of Greek students was .093. Whereas at the intervention parties, .05 was the average BAC for Greek affiliated students. Though the average level of intoxication of Greek students was higher at both sets of parties than unaffiliated students, the incentive program was even more influential on Greeks than non-Greeks.

After reading the Virginia Tech research, I was very skeptical of the actual application of the experiment. Scientists cannot attend every college party in the future and provide a monetary incentive for not drinking; obviously this is irrational. The researchers, however, managed to create several scenarios in which a natural incentive process could actually reduce alcohol consumption at college parties. One suggestion was that party-attenders could pay a small fee upon entry, and at the end of the party a raffle would be drawn and the total collected money given to the winning student. Any policy awarding a physical reward for a low BAC would present the possibility of changing the high-BAC norm on college campuses. Once students are exposed several times to the incentive program and realize that they can control their intake of alcohol and continue having a good time, a natural influence will continue to be present causing students to overall reduce their level of alcohol consumption. The incentive program is simple enough to actually work. While reducing the risk students experience from abusing alcohol, the community will feel safer and the negative externalities will be dramatically reduced.

http://bmo.sagepub.com/content/28/2/167