Despite a large body of work exploring associations between perceived norms and drinking and norms-based interventions for drinking, less work has examined moderators of associations between norms and drinking outcomes to determine potential sub-groups that might benefit most from brief norms-based interventions. The present study investigates shyness as a moderator of associations between drinking norms and alcohol use. We hypothesized that shyness would moderate associations between drinking norms and alcohol use such that individuals who are higher in shyness might be more sensitive to social influence and thus show stronger associations between drinking norms and alcohol use. Participants included 250 college students (70% female; 44.5% White/Caucasian) aged 18–26 (M = 21.02, SD = 2.16) who met heavy drinking criteria (4/5 drinks on one or more occasions in the past month for women/men). Participants completed measures of demographics, shyness, alcohol use, alcohol-related problems, and drinking norms remotely at baseline and one-month follow-up (N = 169). Drinking norms were negatively associated with shyness and positively associated with baseline and follow-up drinking. Shyness was negatively associated with baseline drinking but not associated with follow-up drinking. Interaction models tested longitudinal associations between shyness, descriptive drinking norms, and follow-up drinking, controlling for baseline drinking and gender. Results showed that associations between drinking norms and drinks per week were strongest among people who were higher in shyness. Individuals who are shy may be more susceptible to social influence and thus may benefit more from a norms-based drinking intervention. Future work may explore shyness as a moderator of norms-based intervention efficacy.

尽管有大量工作探索感知规范与饮酒和基于规范的饮酒干预之间的关联，但很少有工作研究规范与饮酒结果之间关联的调节因素，以确定可能从简短的基于规范的干预中受益最大的潜在亚组。本研究调查害羞作为饮酒规范和酒精使用之间关联的调节因素。我们假设害羞会缓和饮酒规范与酒精使用之间的关联，因此害羞程度较高的个体可能对社会影响更敏感，从而显示出饮酒规范与饮酒之间的更强关联。参与者包括 250 名 18-26 岁的大学生（70% 女性；44.5% 白人/高加索人）（M = 21.02，SD = 2。16) 符合重度饮酒标准的人（女性/男性在过去一个月内一次或多次饮酒 4/5 次）。参与者在基线和一个月的随访中远程完成了人口统计、害羞、酒精使用、酒精相关问题和饮酒规范的测量（N  = 169)。饮酒规范与害羞呈负相关，与基线和后续饮酒呈正相关。害羞与基线饮酒呈负相关，但与后续饮酒无关。交互模型测试了害羞、描述性饮酒规范和后续饮酒之间的纵向关联，控制了基线饮酒和性别。结果表明，在害羞程度较高的人群中，饮酒规范与每周饮酒量之间的关联最强。害羞的人可能更容易受到社会影响，因此可能会从基于规范的饮酒干预中受益更多。未来的工作可能会探索害羞作为基于规范的干预效果的调节剂。