Tag Archives: drinking

Peer Pressure in College

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Remember your first cigarette? How about your first beer? First puff on a fatty? What about jumping off the old bridge into the creek? What/who convinced you to do it? Friends…Right? Peer Pressure: Influence from members of one’s peer group (and a hard thing to resist if you ask me). Well, studies show that I am not alone. Peer pressure is a condition of the brain! The human brain values achievement in social settings over achievements performed alone. Two parts of the brain linked with rewards, the striatum and the medial prefrontal cortex, showed much more activity in success amongst friends than success by oneself.

In the article, Infographic: The Science of Peer Pressure, the author calls friendship, magic. Group support can have the power to help you tolerate pain, stay healthy, make you more kind-hearted, raise your math scores, and discourage terrorism (http://1bog.org/blog/infographic-the-science-of-peer-pressure/). The article goes on to talk about power in numbers and how people are more likely to take a sort of action if they know their neighbors have done it already. Another article says that no social support network equals doom and that animals also experience peer pressure (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110906164312.htm).

 

These articles, of course, focus on the positive type of peer pressure and good influences in ones peer group or neighborhood. But is it really healthy to rely so heavily on friends, for their approval and for ones own actions? Think about college; who you were before it and who you are now. It shouldn’t take research to show that students are at least somewhat negatively influenced by their fellow classmates. Obviously there is research, and it shows that 80% of college students drink an alcoholic beverage at least every other week, and of this group 40% binge drink. This heavily exceeds the drinking rate of their non-college peers. Research suggests that this is mainly due the college environment. It is essential for students to be allied with the ‘in-group’ in order to be accepted socially. People not in the ‘in-group’ may lack necessary social support during their transition into college because they do not fit in with the majority of their peers. Alcohol in college has become a social norm and looked at positively by many students. But look at the 400,000 college students who have had unprotected sex because of drinking, and how 1/4th of them do not remember giving consent. Look at the leading cause of death for adolescents, which is alcohol related motor accidents.

(http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/opus/issues/2011/fall/peer).

 

My conclusion:

If you don’t give into negative peer pressure, you’re more likely to be an outcast.

If you do give into it, you’re taking a dangerous risk.

Either way, there will be pressure… in your brain.


peers

Sources:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/09/110906164312.htm

http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/opus/issues/2011/fall/peer

http://1bog.org/blog/infographic-the-science-of-peer-pressure/

Your Self Control is Finite, but Renewable

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Peer pressure. We heard all about it in grade school, when our teachers droned on about the perils of drugs and alcohol right before we went on to middle school. We heard about it when our high school health teachers were giving us “effective” strategies on how to resist and react to it. I’m willing to bet somewhere around 95% (if not 100%) of the students in this class have been asked to participate in underage drinking with their friends. I’m also willing to bet a smaller, yet substantial percentage have been asked to participate in the use of illicit drugs. Being asked once isn’t much of an issue for those attempting to resist the pressure, but being asked multiple times or, indeed, being in an environment where one is surrounded by uninhibited illegal activity takes a serious toll on one’s self-control.

Research from the University of Iowa (found here)  has found that the part of the brain that lets you know that what you’re doing can have negative consequences, the anterior cingulate cortex, is able to alert you to those negative consequences constantly and without limit. However, the part of the brain that actually manages your self control, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has a finite supply of chemicals that allow you to keep your actions in check. This means that your self-control can and will run out if you are constantly exposed to a situation that requires it.

What does this mean? While many college students are eager to jump into the party scene from the start, many aren’t, and many are hesitant to start drinking. We all have that friend who just doesn’t want to drink (hint: I’m that friend), and everyone who is that friend knows how hard it can get to listen to your anterior cingulate cortex. This means that, while someone can be fully aware that they’re breaking a standard they’ve set for themselves, it is completely possible for someone to give into peer pressure and drink before it’s legal simply because everyone else is doing it. Yes. That’s a valid excuse.

What else does this mean? The video I have linked above talks about this concept in the context of free-to-play video games. How many times have you been tempted to buy those extra five moves in Candy Crush Saga to finally beat that level you’ve been stuck on for a week? When constantly exposed to the option to buy your way out of a hard situation in a game, your brain becomes tired and more likely to do so. Yes, these games are exploiting your brain in order to take your money. It’s damn good business.

facebuko.me

Just like any tired muscle, however, your self-control can come back. Simply remove yourself from the situation that is exerting the pressure and your brain’s supply of the chemicals needed to exert self-control will come back. And then you can try level 172 on Candy Crush Saga again without worrying about spending money.