Drinking Norm Misperception The Influence of Gender Beliefs and Culture

Date of Award

2005

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Raghavan, Chemba

Keywords

Culture, Drinking Norms, Perception

Area of Concentration

Psychology

Abstract

College students from western cultures erroneously believe that other students drink more than themselves. The present study investigated three explanations of this phenomena: a) misperception is an unmotivated error caused by attribution biases, b) misperception is a motivated error caused by individuals' desire to believe their own alcohol use is safe, and c) gender differences in misperception result from the use of gender stereotypes. Male and female American and Asian Indian college students responded to a questionnaire that assessed their perceptions of their own and others' alcohol use, their endorsements of gender stereotypes, and the participants' personal backgrounds. Data suggest that motivated and unmotivated errors may contribute to the misperception of drinking norms, but stereotyping does not.

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