for instance in wineproducing countries wine is traditionally consumed with meals popular in rural areas whereas in northern european countries wine drinking is associated with modern living styles and is an element of social life popular in urban areas simpura and karlsson social norms shape drinking behaviours they determine when in what contexts and how often people drink and what levels of drinking are considered acceptable sirc men and women who are more educated or have higher socioeconomic status are more likely to be alcohol drinkers in the past months but they often differ in their propensity to engage in hazardous drinking behaviours lower educated men are more likely than those with more education to engage in hazardous and heavy episodic drinking while the opposite is true for women in most of the countries examined