(U-WIRE) ARLINGTON, Texas -College students may actually drink less than their friends think.

As part of a five-year national study, Howard Meyers, the Counseling and Career Development associate director at the University of Texas-Arlington, is conducting a survey here on how much college students think their peers drink and comparing that to how much they actually do drink.

The goal of the study, which began this summer, is aimed at decreasing the pressure on students to drink by advertising the facts, which show overall that the perception is higher than reality.

Dr. Meyers believes the Social Norms Marketing Research project will be effective in changing students’ perceptions.

“The perception is that when you go to a sorority or fraternity party you have to drink 10 drinks to fit in, but the reality is that when people go drinking they really do not drink more than one or two drinks,” he said.

Meyers and Olga Garcia, the Golden Key Honor Society vice president, attended a seminar in Denver during the summer to learn more about the study.

Their interest, added with the support of the university’s Golden Key Honor Society and the Education Development Center, a national nonprofit education and health organization, sparked the first part of the plan to begin surveying students here.

The national project, which was awarded a $4 million grant by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the U.S. Department of Education, funds the schools that participate in the study. Those schools include California State University, Indiana State University, Purdue University and Syracuse University.

This summer, 300 students were asked questions about their drinking behaviors and the perception of their peers’ drinking behaviors.

Of those surveyed, only about 140 responded.

The average age of respondents was 24, with 47.1 percent of those being male and 52.9 percent female.

Those results are now posted around campus on fliers.

When asked about the average number of drinks consumed in a week, students thought their peers drank 7.02 drinks per week on average, but in reality the average per week is 2.64.

Students were also asked how many drinks they usually have at a party and how many drinks they perceived their peers had.

Students thought their peers had 6.70 drinks at a party, when in reality the average number of drinks is 2.87.

Students also believed that in a 30-day period, only 3.5 percent of their peers did not drink at all; in reality, 36.8 percent of students did not drink at all in a 30-day period.

Even study officials’ perceptions were higher than reality.

“We were pleasantly surprised how little UTA students drink compared to how many parties we hear about,” Garcia said.

Meyers and Garcia used the information from the survey to develop the slogan “75 percent of UTA students have 0-4 drinks when they party,” which is being advertised on campus via fliers, the electronic board in the University Center and in advertisements.

The fliers were given out at the Golden Key Honor Society’s table at the Activities Fair last Wednesday and began circulating on campus Thursday.

Officials said advertising at first will be simple, with text only, and will become more advanced next semester with pictures and graphics.

The Social Norms approach to solving problem drinking is the first of its kind, Meyers said.

“No one has really done a controlled study to see if the program works,” he said.

“What makes this a landmark research project is that we are nationally going to test Social Norms Marketing in an experimentally controlled way.”

Project Director Laura Gomberg described the program as an effective way to approach students about drinking.

“It is a really positive campaign; we don’t want to preach to students, we are just putting the facts out there,” she said.

Gomberg added, “The strategy is real popular and very promising to change people’s attitude.”

The first year of the program will be devoted to training schools, collecting data on campus, and recruiting more schools.

The next three years will be devoted to collecting data and implementing the program.

In the final year, the Education Development Center will evaluate information and allow schools that haven’t been able to implement the program to get their chance.

Other universities that have run similar studies have seen a decrease in problem drinking, Meyers said.

“The universities that have tried the Social Norms Approach have shown a 20- to 21- percent reduction in the drinking rates,” he said.

“The University of Arizona has seen a 21 percent drop in drinking rates; Western Washington College has also seen a 21 percent drop in drinking rates,” he added.

Garcia hopes the university will decrease problem drinking as a result of the study.

“Drinking is already low and we like it that way, but we want to improve on the 75 percent – we want 85 percent,” Garcia said.