Binge Drinking Essay, Research Paper

“What has changed is the across-the-board acceptability of intoxication,” says Felix Savino, a psychologist at UW-Madison. “Many college students today see not just drinking but being drunk as their primary way of socializing.” (”Binge Drinking: A Campus Killer,” Reader’s Digest [RD], November 1998) Binge drinking today has gotten out of control. Millions of students at colleges across the country are getting the wrong message- that drinking is OK, that one always drinks to get drunk. So while many kids are feeling the adverse affects of alcohol on their social, educational and physical health, colleges campus’s are inherently contributing to the growth of this problem by promoting a drinking culture.

The main basis for this culture comes from students miseducation about alcohol’s abuse and affects. Principally, that students, because of the way alcohol is portrayed by the media and the colleges as an overwhelming problem, believe that everyone is binge drinking. This perspective then, that the majority of college students are binge drinkers, not only reinforces the group behavior of the deviant students by attacking them as a community instead of reasoning with them as individuals, but forces people who do not normally engage in this type of behavior, to reconsider their stand on alcohol and even pick up the habit, since they are being labeled anyway, and drink with their peers. “According to Eric Wagner, people typically overestimate or underestimate others’ drinking. He terms this the false consensus effect– ‘when you engage in a prohibitive behavior, you tend to overestimate the number of your peers that do it.’” (The Brown University Digest of Addiction Theory and Application, 1998) This phenomenon is what makes it extremely hard to quit binge drinking in the culture that is currently established. Unless the truth is shown to these students, in a non-aggressive manner, that only forty-four percent of college students are binge drinkers, then how are they to recognize that what they are doing is not normal and necessary to be a college student?

The affects of this college culture of binge drinkers is well documented. From loss of memory, to poor grades, unplanned and unprotected sex, getting injured, and in trouble with the law, to just pointless arguments with friends- alcohol is the cause of many problems for the college binger. In some cases the effects are frightening.

“The 911 call came around midnight. Paramedics were stunned at what they found: more than a dozen young men sprawled on the floor, on chairs, on couches, reeking of alcohol. The paramedics burst into action, shaking the pledges and shouting, “Hey! Can you hear me?” Four couldn’t be roused, and of those, one had no vital signs: Benjamin Wynne was in cardiac arrest. Checking to see that nothing was blocking Wynne’s airway, the paramedics began CPR. Within minutes they’d inserted an oxygen tube into his lungs, hooked up an I.V., attached a cardiac monitor and begun shocking him with defibrillation paddles, trying to restart his heart. Still not responding, Wynne was rushed by ambulance to Baton Rouge General Hospital. Lab work revealed that his blood-alcohol content was an astonishing 0.588 percent, nearly six times the legal driving limit for adults–the equivalent of taking about 21 shots in an hour. Meanwhile, three other fraternity pledges were undergoing similar revival efforts. One was Donald Hunt. He would suffer severe alcohol poisoning and nearly die. After working furiously on Wynne, the hospital team admitted defeat. He was pronounced dead of acute alcohol poisoning.”(RD, 1998)

Stories such as this one, of fraternity binge drinking and death, are constantly making headlines, but they don’t seem to ever stop others from doing it. Unless a student is really close to someone who has been hurt or killed by binge drinking, the affect of articles like this one serve mainly to reinforce the binge drinking attitude which exists in college culture today. Another story of a girl’s tragedy with binge drinking shows this disheartening trend.

“Mindy Somers knew the dangers of alcohol and tried to stay aware of her limits. She’d planned not to overdo it that Friday night, since her mother was coming in that weekend to celebrate Mindy’s 19th birthday on Sunday. But it was Halloween, the campus was alive with activity, and Mindy decided to stop in at several off-campus parties. When she returned to her room at 3 a.m., she was wiped out enough to fall into bed fully clothed. Mindy’s bed was pushed lengthwise against the long, low window. Her roommate and two other girls, who were on the floor, all slept too soundly to notice that sometime after 4 a.m. Mindy’s bed was empty. When the paperboy found her facedown on the grass at 6:45 a.m., he at first thought it was a Halloween prank. Police and EMTs swarmed to the scene in minutes. Somers was pronounced dead of massive chest and abdominal injuries. She had a blood-alcohol content of 0.21 percent, equal to her having drunk about five beers in one hour. Police surmised that Mindy had tried to get out of bed during the night but, disoriented, had slipped out the window, falling 75 feet to her death. “It was a strange, tragic accident,” Virginia Tech Police Chief Michael Jones says. A terrible irony was that the week prior to Mindy’s death had been Virginia Tech’s annual Alcohol Awareness Week.” (RD, 1998)

It happens often, and these are just the extreme cases. Even the lesser affects of college binge drinking can destroy the lives of many college students. Twenty-two percent of frequent bingers have unprotected sex. Because of alcohol, they put themselves at risk for a life threatening disease, or an unexpected child- both of which can ruin a college experience. “According to a survey of university administrators, 38 percent of academic problems are alcohol-related, as are 29 percent of dropouts.” (RD, 1998) Sixty-two percent of male bingers and forty-nine percent of female bingers admitted to getting behind the wheel of a car while under the influence of alcohol. And, compared to their peers, binge drinkers are more likely to use illicit drugs. All of these pose serious health or legal repercussions which could easily be avoided without the influence of alcohol.

To reduce these problems of binge drinking we must eliminate the culture that cultivates it. Therefore, the methods we apply must be used in the general areas of college campuses where drinking is a “right of passage” and the most important problem. In these areas we need to implement a form of social marketing which makes “not drinking” appear as it is– the norm. This plan would target not only the students within the University, but those interested in coming to the specific college, because as a whole it will change the image of the school. What is necessary from these actions is that the concept, that a particular school is a “party school”, must be negated. As it is now, the concept of a party school often determines where students want to go after High School. Consequently, it also affects what the students take pride in when representing their University. For example, at Michigan State University, when a student goes home to the bar with their friends, it is expected that because the student is from M.S.U. they are going to “out drink” those from the other colleges. This reputation is indeed unfair, but it innately evokes a sense of pride in one’s school and self. This pride one feels is part of something known as the “Granfalloon Technique”. Two things make this tactic of social persuasion effective. First, the knowledge that “I am in this group” (Pratkanis & Aronson, 1992) helps one define their sense of place in this world. It is a self-imposed, or accepted label, like any team, origin or political party, this technique works through the need to characterize oneself. Secondly, the concept that “this is what our type does” (Pratkanis & Aronson, 1992) exaggerates the similarity between the members of a group often to the point where they are no longer valid. This is the case at M.S.U.. By giving ourselves this stereotype as a drinking school, it becomes necessary to defend this phantom pride by binge drinking and rioting. The fact that fifty-six percent of our students do not engage in binge drinking, becomes inconsequential, because as our social image stands now binge drinking “is what our type does”(Pratkanis & Aronson, 1992).

So, in trying to curb the affects of binge drinking on college campuses we must start by changing the way in which students view themselves and the Universities they attend. First, we need to increase awareness, not only of the negative affects of drinking using scare tactics, but by educating the students on what percent of their peers really are involved in binge drinking. Flyers need to be distributed in all areas where students converge. For example: signs on buses, cafeterias, dorms and classrooms. Some of these signs should contain a message of fear appeal to discourage students from binge drinking. There was one in Brody last year that seemed to work well, and should be posted again. The message read “Chugging kills”. This appeal works because it scares the student. It also offers the student a specific recommendation for overcoming the threat. The fact that the student feels that they can accomplish this specific action (not to chug), and the fact that it is effective in reducing the threat (death), makes the fear appeal adept at getting the target audience (the students), to follow the suggested behavior pattern. The other advertisement which must be used is meant to change the students views on binge drinking through social pressure. This can be done through a flyer, or publication, by a student group which reads “Most students drink less then five drinks in a row”. Although this may not sound very persuasive it deals with the heart of the issue. In this case, the message shows the audience that “this is what our type does”. It makes it socially OK to stop drinking before having five or more drinks. The Granfalloon technique in this case will work to our advantage.

This, unfortunately, is not enough. In order to have any real affect the entire community must be involved in support of the behavior we are trying to discourage. The Greek system, who are per student, four times more likely to binge drink than other students at the University, must also be a part of the effort to promote responsible drinking. This means, that not only will they have to distribute the above mentioned flyers, but through their actions, while they drink, set an example for other students. They must agree to regulations which oppose binge drinking and follow them responsibly within their respective Houses. If the Greek system fails to do this, then other measures, such as going “dry” will have to be instituted.

Other groups within our community must help to reduce binge drinking as well. Stores will have to enforce the legal drinking age. Police will have to crack down on public drunkenness, open intoxicants, drunk driving, and minor in possessions charges. The University itself, will have to make a public stand on the issue of binge drinking. In order for this to work effectively, a dry campus policy will have to be established. Only then, will those that are binge drinkers realize that they are indeed the minority on campus. It will force students to recognize, before they make the choice to come to Michigan State, or any other college, that the school isn’t “a party school”.

Another key participant in the control of binge drinking behavior is that of the bars. They need to curb beer and drink promotions like “penny and nickel drink nights”, “all you can drink specials”, “lady’s night” and “crawls”. Along with the reduction of these advertisements which encourage binge drinking behavior, they must also watch their patrons closely and limit their number of drinks.

These kind of regulations though, infringe on the right of the bars to sell, to make a profit and basically stay in business. They also pose a legal and ethical problem when trying to tell a person how much they are allowed to drink, whether it is good for them or not– it violates their freedom of the 1st Amendment. Lamentably, these problems are most likely insurmountable. No matter how bad the problem of binge drinking gets, it is doubtful that such basic laws as these will be ignored to help arrest it. The most hopeful possibility is if binge drinking gets to the point where smoking is now– it is known to negatively affect the health of others. At this point, communities will have to become involved. Ironically, what it will take, is for enough people to eventually get killed by drunk drivers, or watch their friends die, or drop out of school, or get AIDS– only then, will bars legally have to regulate the amount of alcohol that people consume in their establishments, and only then, will the patrons ethically, responsibly, and freely accept such restraint being placed on them.

This plan to curb the amount of binge drinking which occurs on college campus’s will inherently initiate social change. The plan needs many participants in the community to become involved, and socially markets a new perspective or image to be placed on the University, it’s students, and neighboring areas. The simple methodology of this plan implies that the movement of “binge drinking intervention” will create a vast difference in the current political atmosphere surrounding the issue. With the implementation of these steps to curb binge drinking, social policies- including those which question issues of law and ethics- will be challenged. Currently, there has been some progress in the awareness of the affects of binge drinking. At Michigan State for example, there were flyers placed in Brody and throughout campus. President Peter McPherson, has made it his goal to see fraternity and sorority functions and houses go “dry”, or be alcohol free, as soon as possible. Whether it is his motive or not, he is taking steps in agreement with the plan for binge drinking intervention.

Similar methods such as this plan to curb binge drinking on college campus’s, have been extremely successful in the past. “In a 1988 study Haines found that NIU students thought that binge drinkers (defined as those who drink more than five drinks at parties) comprised 69.7 percent of the student population (the perceived binge). The actual percentage of binge drinkers on campus (actual binge) was 43 percent, an average figure for a college campus. To fight that misperception, Haines published the actual figures on campus binge drinking in the school newspaper and in display and classified advertisements. He also sent two students across campus to award a dollar to each student who could tell them the correct percentage of students who are binge drinkers. The cost of the efforts was nominal: only $3,000 in 1989-90. Haines’ efforts brought astounding results. In 1995 the perceived binge had fallen to 42.9 percent-almost the exact number of the actual binge of 1988. The actual binge, however, had fallen to 27.7 percent-a drop of 35.6 percent.” (Sanders, 1998) Haines’ campaign was impressive, and offers a lot of hope in dealing with the problem of college binge drinking. It makes a strong statement that reducing binge drinking through a campaign which utilizes social marketing techniques, such as this “plan to reduce binge drinking on college campuses”, is inexpensive to implement and impressive in effectiveness.

There are many hopeful signs that people are concerned about the irresponsible drinking culture which exists on college campuses today. There has even been an act presented to the House of Representatives pertaining to the issue– House Resolution 321, “The Collegiate Initiative to Reduce Binge Drinking”. This document although, doubtful in the sense that it is a major concern of those within the government, at least shows that people are aware of the issue, and are interested in finding a solution.

These two things are essential to the implementation of, not only this “plan to reduce college binge drinking”, but any kind of action which will curb irresponsible drinking behavior. The methods used in this plan of binge drinking intervention, will change the policy on a community and campus level- such as going dry and enforcing legal limits- yet, the actions implemented will mirror the Nationwide awareness and concern which makes these changes not only possible, but effective.