Wild college parties have long been romanticized in Hollywood movies, but how closely does real life mirror art? In the 1990s, about 44% of college students were binge drinkers, as measured by the Harvard School of Public Health's College Alcohol Study. Twenty years later, that figure had only dropped by three percentage points, according to the 2022 survey. Compare that to 29% in 2022 — the latest year for available data — and it begs the question: What caused a 34% decrease in bingeing behaviors from the 1990s to today? Plenty of changes in the past two decades have likely contributed, such as a new understanding of and desire for healthy living, more information online and via social media, stricter laws, education programs at the high school and college levels, how parents discuss drinking with their children, and even the growing price tag of alcoholic beverages, said Antoine Douaihy, professor of psychiatry and medicine at the University of Pittsburgh's psychiatry department.