Working to Solve the College Binge Drinking Epidemic

BEHAVIOR MAPPING FOR MAKING COLLEGE DRINKING PATTERNS HEALTHIER

BENJY MERCER-GOLDEN STANFORD UNIVERSITY benjym@stanford.edu

MY GOAL

To persuade Stanford freshmen to not engage in binge drinking behavior1 on the weekends.

1 As defined by the U.S. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: “A pattern of alcohol consumption that brings the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) to .08% or more. This pattern usually corresponds to 5 or more drinks on a single occasion for men or 4 or more drinks on a single occasion for women, generally within about 2 hours.”

BEHAVIOR PRIORITY MAP

We cannot get this behavior to happen We can get this behavior to happen

ABOVE THE LINE: "HIGH-IMPACT, FEASIBLE BEHAVIORS

Given limited resources, these are the behaviors I would choose to prioritize.

We can get this behavior to happen

A NOTE ON MY ANALYSIS Some of these ideas (such as creating more opportunities for freshmen to drink beer) may seem counter-intuitive. I nonetheless believe these are some of the most high-impact strategies possible.

In that light, my prioritizing of certain behaviors may seem unconventional to you. I consider all of this to be part of a broader message of having smart policies on excessive drinking rather than tough policies.

MAPPING SOLUTIONS FOR ONE TARGET BEHAVIOR

WHAT I TESTED

•  A modified form of the behavior sequence from the top right of previous slide’s diagram

•  I asked my friend, an RA in a freshman dorm, to hold random alcohol-related meetings with 10 of his freshmen

•  I asked permission to sit in on each of these meetings and casually observe the conservations

KEY OBSERVATIONS

•  3/10 freshmen admitted to binge drinking when asked

•  Then, when provided with CDC definition of binge drinking, 7/10 said they binge drink

•  All 10 cited a general “lack of other things to do” on weekends = insufficient alternatives to drinking

FURTHER OBSERVATIONS (1)

•  No one reported peer pressure behavior = peer pressure not root cause of binge drinking problem

•  8/10 disagreed with Stanford’s alcohol policy in some form

•  All 10 would be willing to have further conservations about alcohol if it led to changes in policy

•  All 10 said they could have just as much fun in life without binge drinking

FURTHER OBSERVATIONS (2)

•  In general, students felt comfortable talking about their own personal drinking habits; all 10 talked about alcohol-related regrets and errors

•  The RA asked them not to engage in binge drinking over the next couple weeks; all 10 students claimed they would be more mindful and try not to

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BEHAVIOR DESIGN

•  Casual, unscheduled conversations seem to be more effective than the other options I mapped out

•  These conversations have an added benefit: they provide huge amounts of data for us to iterate on when changing alcohol policy in the future

•  As part of this data, it is clear my next big goal is to work on strategies for providing fun alternatives to binge drinking on weekends

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR BEHAVIOR DESIGN But the number one takeaway from this:

RAs holding mandatory talks about drinking habits with freshmen is an effective behavior that we should strive to implement.

CONTACT ME

Benjy Mercer-Golden

benjym@stanford.edu