Social Norms Project

The overall purpose of the Social Norms Project is to create a prevention campaign about sexual violence among youth. However, in order to accomplish this goal effectively, we must first examine and assess what our youths believe sexual violence is and how they feel about it. Once we understand their beliefs, we can determine the best way to help prevent sexual assault.

The social norms theory assumes that much of our behavior is influenced by how other members of our social groups behave and that our beliefs about what others do are often incorrect.  

In this project, we will create surveys specialized for certain age groups and administer those surveys to students across the state. We will attempt an equal evaluation of girls and boys, urban and rural and the various demographic proportions that make up our state.

We will then evaluate the data gathered from students and brainstorm the best ways to reach students. From that data, we will develop a media campaign to educate students on what sexual assault is in comparison to what they believe.

Finally, we will survey students a second time to determine if the media campaign altered their initial beliefs or if the majority of the students continued to believe their initial assumptions.

From the overall data collected from this project, we will create a curriculum on issues of sexual violence that are more prevalent to youth and train adults on how to help youth cope with and eliminate sexual violence.