Low to moderate‐quality evidence indicates that social norming information (feedback on alcohol use compared with peers) has little to no effect on the drinking habits and alcohol‐related consequences in college and university students.

Randomized controlled trials including over 40,000 students (mean age 19 years; 56% women) evaluated the effects of subject‐specific feedback on alcohol‐related behaviors. Feedback was given in a variety of formats and compared with no feedback or general alcohol‐related education. Students received personal information comparing their drinking behaviors with those of their peers, delivered electronically (computer or Internet), by mail, via marketing campaigns, or in group or individual face‐to‐face sessions. The outcomes were measured four or more months after the norming interventions, and none of the methods produced clinically meaningful changes in alcohol‐related problems (e.g. legal difficulties, risky behavior, illicit drug use, and injuries), binge drinking, alcohol quantity and frequency, or estimated blood alcohol content. In subgroup analyses some interventions did demonstrate a statistically significant difference between groups, but the differences were small and clinically meaningless.