working to solve the college binge drinking epidemic
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BEHAVIOR MAPPING FOR MAKING COLLEGE DRINKING PATTERNS HEALTHIER
BENJY MERCER-GOLDEN STANFORD UNIVERSITY [email protected]
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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.”
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BEHAVIOR PRIORITY MAP
We cannot get this behavior to happen We can get this behavior to happen
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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
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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.
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MAPPING SOLUTIONS FOR ONE TARGET BEHAVIOR
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.