Data from surveys of students representing 100 diverse college campuses
were used to investigate the difference between the self-reported frequency of
a drug’s use and students’ perceptions of the frequency of use. Students were asked about the frequency of
their own use of 11 drugs (alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines,
sedatives, hallucinogens, opiates, inhalants, designer drugs, and steroids) and
how often they thought the “average student” on their campus used these drugs. Respondents typically misperceived their peer
norms (designated as the median of self-reported use) by substantially
overestimating how often the average student used each drug, both in campus
samples where abstinence or infrequent use were the median of self-reports and
in samples where the median of self-reports revealed more frequent use. To the extent that they may promote or
reinforce students’ actual use, the misperceptions should be considered in
designing college drug intervention programs.