Why this campaign | My Health My Choice

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I BELIEVE

my friends are capable of deciding how much alcohol they consume.

But I did talk to them about the fact that most people their age drink no more than two glasses in one occasion.

MY HEALTH MY CHOICE

We believe in the choice of an individual, but we encourage making this choice based on the facts. Through the Social Norms Approach (SNA), we aim to show people what is really going on with substance use.

How do you decide?

We often find ourselves (sub)consciously measuring our own behaviour to that of those around us.
We do this by thinking: “What would my friends do?” or “Person A always does this..” or “Person B never does this..”.

Mirroring ourselves to our peers is completely natural. It’s how we learn as toddlers. It’s how we form a style when we are teenagers and it’s how we shape our personalities throughout our life. But, when it comes to substance use, our perception about others is very often a misperception. These misperceptions shape our own behavior, causing us to use more than we would like, because we assume “Everyone uses more than we do, anyway”. With our campaign ‘My Health, My Choice’, we share the findings of our research and tell you the story behind substance use among your peers.

About this
campaign

We have conducted a research about substance usage among senior citizens (aged 55+) in Germany, The Netherlands and Belgium. We asked them about their own use, but we have also asked them how they perceive the use of their peers.

The findings clearly showed us how we often think unrealistically about other people’s use. We tend to overestimate risky behaviour among our peers, while we underestimate healthy behaviour among these same peers. We believe that seeing the actual figures behind substance use, can let you make a well-informed reflection upon your own use. You can make your own choices, but we encourage to make these choices based on facts. Not on misperceived social norms.

You can check out our findings and draw your own conclusions or you can take our quiz and see how your use measures up to the use of those around you.

SEE THE FACTS

THE CAMPAIGN FOCUSSES ON TWO TARGET AUDIENCES: YOUTH AND 55+

Have a look at the other campaigns

Visit the website for a younger audience

Visit the website for the 55+ audience

OUR SURVEY REPORT

This campaign revolves around statistics taken from our Euroregional Health Survey.

This online survey was conducted from September 2019 to January 2020 and was presented to citizens, aged 55+ years old, living in The Netherlands (Zuid Limburg), Belgium (Provincie Limburg, Ostbelgien and Liège) and Germany (Aachen, Euskirchen, Heinsburg and Bitburg-Prüm). To ensure safety in answering questions regarding substance use, respondents remained anonymous throughout the survey.

We asked these respondents to give us an indication of their substance use and also asked how they felt other people their age would score on these same questions. Interestingly, the SNA appeared to be applicable in nearly all proposed situations. We clearly saw how respondents had a tendency to downplay healthy behavior among their peers while overestimating their unhealthy behavior. Curious to all facts and figures? You may download the report below.

DOWNLOAD FULL SURVEY REPORT

CAMPAIGN VIDEO

Maybe you don’t feel like reading all the information on this website or the extensive research report.

We have created an informative animation for educative purposes. In this video we have summarised the most important ideas behind the Social Norms Approach and we present you with some facts and figures from our research.

Feel free to use this video to your advantage.