The popular campaigns -- often promoted by the alcohol industry -- are designed to curb alcohol use on campus by showing students through posters and ads that their peers don't drink as much alcohol as they might think. The campaign is in use at several large universities, including the University of Arizona, the University of Virginia, and the University of North Carolina.

The Harvard study examined 37 schools that used the social-norms campaign and 61 that didn't. Researchers measured seven student drinking behaviors, from casual to heavy drinking.

The researchers found that students were drinking just as much at schools that had the campaign, and, in many cases, even more than at schools without the program.

"It's simple, it's cheap, it makes everybody look good. It makes the college look good because it says there's less drinking there than people think," said Henry Wechsler, director of the Harvard study. "The only problem is, it doesn't seem to work."

The Harvard study contradicts previous studies that show that schools with social-norms programs have significantly lowered college drinking. The creators of the campaign cited several schools where binge drinking was reduced because of the program.

"To this day, as we stand here, this is the most effective program in the country. It has more data to show its efficacy than any other program out there," said Michael Haines, director of the National Social Norms Resource Center.

Findings from the Harvard study are published in the July 2003 issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol.

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