College Binge Drinkers Happier Than Non-Drinkers: How a Bad Habit Increases Social Status
Not everyone is doing it, but perhaps everyone that "matters" is- that may be the reason why binge drinking persists as problem at the university level. A preliminary study, however, reports that it's not a problem for those indulging, and in fact, binge drinkers may be happier than those students who choose not to drink at all.
A number of programs have been launched to prevent binge drinking on college campuses. Those programs promote the idea that "not everyone is doing it" in an attempt to relieve students of a peer pressure and a social stigma that everyone in college is a binge drinker. But a new preliminary study has suggested that those programs may only be effective to a point, because if everyone that "matters" is binge drinking, then it still maintains its allure.
"Binge drinking is a symbolic proxy for high status in college," study co-author Carolyn Hsu, an associate professor of sociology at Colgate University, said in a statement to Time magazine.
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The study discovered that students reported being happier when they were a part of the binge drinking culture on campus. The reason, though, has little to do with the drinking and everything to do with social status.
The study revealed that "rich white frat boys" were more likely to have a higher status on campus, more likely to happy, and also more likely to binge drink. As a result, those eager to fall into a higher status may also be likely to partake in binge drinking in an attempt to fit in.
"Students in all groups consistently liked college more when they participated in the campus' binge drinking culture," Hsu reported. "Low status students in particular seem to be using binge drinking as a vehicle for social mobility and as a way to contend with an otherwise hostile social environment."
Students who were extremely "stressed or anxious" were also less likely to partake in binge drinking.
The figure stands that less than 40 percent of students partake in binge drinking- a minority, as advocate groups against binge drinking promote. Still, if popular students continue to make up the majority of student who do binge drink, the issue will continue to be a problem.
