Ian Ayres offers an interesting post on conformity: people tend to conform to what they think others are doing, and he stresses the implications for public service announcements about teen sex and drug use. In a similar vein, here's Jeffrey Miron and Elina Tetelbaum on the ineffectiveness of the drinking age.

Various flyers about drugs and alcohol I've seen around campus are putting Ayres's point into practice. They don't encourage people to "be different." They point out that according to surveys the College has done, binge drinking at Rhodes is relatively rare. I'll be interested in seeing how effective the campaign is in a few years.