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"We Brits believe that alcohol has magical powers – that it causes us to shed our inhibitions and become aggressive, promiscuous, disorderly and even violent.

"We Brits believe that alcohol has magical powers – that it causes us to shed our inhibitions and become aggressive, promiscuous, disorderly and even violent. But we are wrong. In high doses, alcohol impairs our reaction times, muscle control, co-ordination, short-term memory, perceptual field, cognitive abilities and ability to speak clearly. But it does not cause us selectively to break specific social rules. It does not cause us to say, “Oi, what you lookin’ at?” and start punching each other. Nor does it cause us to say, “Hey babe, fancy a shag?” and start groping each other. The effects of alcohol on behaviour are determined by cultural rules and norms, not by the chemical actions of ethanol. There is enormous cross-cultural variation in the way people behave when they drink alcohol. … In … the vast majority of cultures, … drinking is not associated with these undesirable behaviours … Alcohol is just a morally neutral, normal, integral part of ordinary, everyday life – about on a par with, say, coffee or tea. … This variation cannot be attributed to different levels of consumption. … Instead the variation is clearly related to different cultural beliefs about alcohol. … This basic fact has been proved time and again … in carefully controlled scientific experiments – double-blind, placebos and all. To put it very simply, the experiments show that when people think they are drinking alcohol, they behave according to their cultural beliefs about the behavioural effects of alcohol. … Those who most strongly believe that alcohol causes aggression are the most likely to become aggressive when they think that they have consumed alcohol. … These experiments show that even when people are very drunk, if they are given an incentive (either financial reward or even just social approval) they are perfectly capable of remaining in complete control of their behaviour – of behaving as though they were totally sober. … If I were given total power, I could very easily engineer a nation in which coffee would become a huge social problem. … I would restrict access to coffee, thus immediately giving it highly desirable forbidden-fruit status. Then I would issue lots of dire warnings about the dangerously disinhibiting effects of coffee. I would make sure everyone knew that even a mere three cups (six “units”) of coffee “can lead to anti-social, aggressive and violent behaviour”, and sexual promiscuity, thus instantly giving young people a powerful motive to binge-drink double espressos, and a perfect excuse to behave very badly after doing so." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15265317 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-15265317

talkingquickly 15y ago
Although many studies have shown that people given a placebo will often behave as if drunk, this doesn't prove that the effect of alcohol is purely psychological. Although people will begin to behave as if drunk, my understanding is they will tend to behave in a manner which they would normally feel slightly inhibited from. When someone has actually consumed alcohol they will be more likely to perform actions which there is a high (rather than medium as with the placebos) social pressure against. I can see the coffee example working for both consciously using alcohol as an excuse for socially unacceptable behaviour and the type of results seen when placebos are given but not the more extreme responses associated with higher intakes. Old paper but a good one is The Psychology of Drunken Excess (http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/48/1/18/ http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/48/1/18/) but afraid I don't think it's available without paying.
Duff 15y ago
You are conflating alcohol abuse with alcohol dependence. Two different things, with different social and health consequences.
wtvanhest 15y ago
I disagree. I have done exactly what the author did and got drunk before having to send emails. I sent emails I would have never sent sober because I would have been too worried about the implications. No one is around judging you or knowing you are drunk, you are just writing emails.
paganel 15y ago
> In … the vast majority of cultures, … drinking is not associated with these undesirable behaviours … Alcohol is just a morally neutral, normal, integral part of ordinary, everyday life – about on a par with, say, coffee or tea. It's not a "cultural" thing or however you want to call it. My father is one of the nicest persons you'll ever meet when he's sober, but when he gets really drunk he becomes aggressive and violent as hell. And I can assure you that he's not doing it because he thinks he's "cool" to be aggressive when drunk, my parents live in the middle of nowhere, social norms are the last thing my dad would care about.
pharrington 15y ago

talkingquickly 15y ago

Although many studies have shown that people given a placebo will often behave as if drunk, this doesn't prove that the effect of alcohol is purely psychological. Although people will begin to behave as if drunk, my understanding is they will tend to behave in a manner which they would normally feel slightly inhibited from. When someone has actually consumed alcohol they will be more likely to perform actions which there is a high (rather than medium as with the placebos) social pressure against. I can see the coffee example working for both consciously using alcohol as an excuse for socially unacceptable behaviour and the type of results seen when placebos are given but not the more extreme responses associated with higher intakes. Old paper but a good one is The Psychology of Drunken Excess (http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/48/1/18/ http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/48/1/18/) but afraid I don't think it's available without paying.

Duff 15y ago

You are conflating alcohol abuse with alcohol dependence. Two different things, with different social and health consequences.

wtvanhest 15y ago

I disagree. I have done exactly what the author did and got drunk before having to send emails. I sent emails I would have never sent sober because I would have been too worried about the implications. No one is around judging you or knowing you are drunk, you are just writing emails.

paganel 15y ago

> In … the vast majority of cultures, … drinking is not associated with these undesirable behaviours … Alcohol is just a morally neutral, normal, integral part of ordinary, everyday life – about on a par with, say, coffee or tea. It's not a "cultural" thing or however you want to call it. My father is one of the nicest persons you'll ever meet when he's sober, but when he gets really drunk he becomes aggressive and violent as hell. And I can assure you that he's not doing it because he thinks he's "cool" to be aggressive when drunk, my parents live in the middle of nowhere, social norms are the last thing my dad would care about.

pharrington 15y ago