It seems a lot of people are missing the point here so I'll try to clarify. First, an increase in aggression does not mean that everyone suddenly turns into a

It seems a lot of people are missing the point here so I'll try to clarify. First, an increase in aggression does not mean that everyone suddenly turns into a raging asshole, it just means an increase, even a slight one, in aggressive tendencies. Which does not necessarily mean physical aggression. People tend to become more demanding, or more snarky, or bold, and so on. Examples include: egging others on to drink heavily or do silly things even if they don't want to. Even things like ragging on your friends is representative of an increase in aggression. Such things can still be "friendly", but they are indicative of increased aggression. And a small subset of people do get more physically aggressive, confrontational, oppositional, etc. A lot of this stuff is so ingrained in our culture that we don't even notice it. We just accept that being drunk translates to being more aggressive in a zillion subtle ways and don't even consider such things to be true aggression. Additionally, I'm disappointed that so many people have jumped immediately to the "my limited anecdotal experience contradicts countless scientific studies" response. No, anecdotes are not data. Moreover, if you think about the way your friends behave when drunk you might notice signs of increased aggression as well, if you pay attention. I don't have any friends who get violent when drunk, and I have many friends who are adorable drunks, but I do notice a consistent pattern in becoming slightly more aggressive across the board. More demanding, less charitable, etc.