Evaluation of a Social Norms Sexual Violence Prevention Marketing Campaign Targeted Toward College Men: Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors Over 5 Years

Abstract

The article evaluates the effectiveness of a 5-year social norms sexual violence prevention marketing campaign designed specifically for men on a large public university in the Southeastern United States. From 2010 through 2014, 4,158 men were asked about their self-reported attitudes, beliefs, and behavior related to sexual violence as well as their perception of their peers' attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Using social norms theory, a social norms marketing campaign was developed to target highly discrepant attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Results indicate that both self-reported and perception of peer attitudes and beliefs improved over time, and the discrepancy between the two reduced over time. In addition, the frequency of positive and prosocial self-reported behavior increased on five of the six indicators. This study represents a significant contribution to the literature, as it uses 5 years of data and includes behavioral indicators to add evidence for the efficacy of targeting misperceptions of social norms as a mechanism to engage men in gender-based violence prevention.

Commuter Students’ Readiness to Help in Incidents of Campus Sexual Violence

“…One approach might be the use of "passive programming" such as posters and flyers to provide information to students while they are on campus, even if for a short time, without attending a program. Evidence suggests that social norm campaigns around sexual violence, including promoting prosocial attitudes and bystander interventions, can be effective in changing students' norms through such passive means (Mennicke et al, 2021;Potter et al, 2009). The findings from the current study also suggest that Awareness of Resources and Sense of Community are important predictors of RTH, particularly the subscales that measure higher levels of engagement (Taking Responsibility and Action), indicating that these constructs are key to students' RTH.…”

Distorted Reality: A Commentary on DiMarco et al. (2022) and the Question of Male Sexual Victimization

“…Surprisingly, however, DiMarco et al fail to examine this vital component of men's lived experiences in sufficient detail. This is a key limitation of their analysis of male sexual victimization that results in overgeneralization of low levels of reporting as solely caused by socio-cultural barriers and exclusionary paradigms, which incidentally exist also for female victims (Mennicke et al, 2021). It also demonstrates a narrow understanding of how both men's and women's experiences of trauma are shaped by internal coping mechanisms designed to recapture a sense of agency and normality in their lives, and ultimately increase their reluctance to engage in the long and arduous process of reporting to the police.…”

Youth perceptions of prevention norms and peer violence perpetration and victimization: A prospective analysis

“…Research with college men suggests that programs that seek to correct misperceptions of social norms may help to reduce sexual violence. For example, Mennicke et al (2018) used social norms marketing campaigns to address discrepancies in college males' perceptions of peers' attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors regarding sexual violence. The quasi-experimental evaluation took place over 5 years; men on campus were asked about their attitudes and behaviors, as well as their perceptions of norms on campus.…”

“…Norms can be about negative (e.g., peer norms supporting the use of coercion in relationships) or positive (e.g., peer support for stepping in to prevent sexual violence) behaviors (Banyard, Edwards, Jones, Greenberg, et al, 2020; Schwartz et al, 2001). Social norms interventions may seek to decrease negative and increase positive norms; furthermore, they seek to correct norm misperceptions if there is a misperception to correct (Gidycz et al, 2011; Hillenbrand‐Gunn et al, 2010; Mennicke et al, 2018; Orchowski, 2020). Norm misperceptions are the gap between how an individual perceives the behavior and attitudes of their peers (perceived norms) and their peers' actual behavior and attitudes (actual norms).…”