The social norms approach seems to be one of the most successful
             methodology directed towards health problems and risks associated with
             behavior that has been used lately. First developed by Alan Berkowitz and
             H. Wesley Perkins, the social norms methodology has already encountered
             The basic idea that Berkowitz and Perkins used in the development of
             their methodology was that society is governed by social norms, norms that
             may affect the way we act and some of the decisions that we take. For
             example, the dress code of a certain organization may be considered a
             social norm. The fact that we respect it and show up at work wearing a
             suit and tie instead of jeans influences the way we dress up and creates a
             Berkowitz and Perkins first used this idea to investigate the
             influence of social norms on alcohol consumption in teenagers, high school
             and college students. Their research sustained the idea that alcohol
             consumption in this age group was greatly influenced by what they believed
             the consumption of alcohol was within the ranks of their colleagues.
             Indeed, they generated the idea that the "false norm", as they
             referred to it, "created imaginary peer pressure to drink higher quantities
             and more frequently than would actually occur"[1]. Following this initial
             assumption, acting upon the premise or cause (the false norm) and
             correcting it may mean the change of the effect (the higher consumption of
             However, in this essay we will refer more to an excellent definition
             given by Ann E. Carlson in an article, where social norms are those type of
             "nonlegal rules and obligations that individuals follow because failure to
             do so subjects them to various social sanctions, including gossip,
             ostracism, even violence, or personal feelings of guilt or shame"[2].
             In the case of healthcare delivery, an excellent example, somewhat
             ...