Some universities have run public service ads in which they give the results of a careful survey of their students with what students say is the average number of beers or drinks they are likely to consume in a given evening

Apart from establishing a drinking social norm, why be so explicit about the actual number of drinks? That is, what psychological tendency might the ads be attempting to thwart?


Answer:
It turns out that people tend to believe that many people drink more than they do; in other words, they tend to engage in pluralistic ignorance. The ads state the average reported consumption quite explicitly so that people will quit imagining that they themselves are some sort of weirdo if they don't consume large amounts of alcohol.

Psychology

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Psychology