An Examination of Alcohol Expectations and Social Desirability in Fraternity Members on American College Campuses

Males who are members of American college fraternal organizations remain one of the heaviest drinking populations among college students (Wall, 2006). Within fraternities, alcohol use is ceded to social status (Larimer et al., 1997). This culturally ingrained alcohol misuse has confounded interventions and programming to address this phenomenon and response to these attempts have been low or nonexistent by fraternity members. This study investigated alcohol expectations and social desirability among fraternity members. It was hypothesized that as members enter and remain in the fraternity culture, distorted expectations and socially desirable behaviors may occur as demonstrated by differences between pledges and active members. Participants took the Brown et al. (1987) Alcohol Expectancy Questionnaire-Adult version and the Marlowe and Crowne (1964) Social Desirability inventory. Results revealed that pledges engaged in higher levels of socially desirable behaviors and conformed towards exaggerated expectations of alcohol related to overall alcohol use, sexual ability, and socialization. Implications for advisors, health education professionals, college administrators, and counselors are suggested