Journal article
Effects of Alcohol Priming on Social Disinhibition
Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology, Vol.18(2), pp.135-144
04/01/2010
DOI: 10.1037/a0018871
PMID: 20384425
Abstract
Recent studies have suggested that exposure to rudimentary alcohol cues activates mental representations of alcohol expectancies in long-term memory, thereby promoting expectancy-consistent behavior changes. However, reliance in these previous studies on self-report measures raises the possibility that prior findings were an artifact of experimental demand. The present study was aimed at ruling out this alternative explanation by reinvestigating the effects of alcohol priming on nonconsumptive behavior using an implicit measure of social disinhibition. In three experiments, participants were exposed to either alcohol or control beverage images, then asked to type as quickly as possible the first word that came to mind in response to a series of provocative (e.g., feces) and neutral (e.g., chair) stimulus words. Participants' response times were surreptitiously measured. Results revealed that participants exposed to images of alcohol, relative to control beverages, were faster to generate free associations to provocative, but not neutral, words, suggesting enhanced social disinhibition. This effect was limited to conditions of heightened evaluation, ruling out alternative explanations based on knowledge activation or arousal. Participants reported no suspicions regarding the connection between the image viewing and free association tasks nor any awareness that their response times had been collected. Results suggest that the behavioral effects of alcohol priming do not result from demand characteristics and offer the first evidence that exposure to rudimentary alcohol-related stimuli may suffice to influence social disinhibition in a manner akin to that expected to result from actual or placebo alcohol consumption.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Effects of Alcohol Priming on Social Disinhibition
- Creators
- Nicholas Freeman - SUNY Albany, Dept Psychol, Albany, NY 12222 USARonald S. Friedman - SUNY Albany, Dept Psychol, Albany, NY 12222 USABruce D. Bartholow - University of MissouriEdelgard Wulfert - SUNY Albany, Dept Psychol, Albany, NY 12222 USA
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Experimental and clinical psychopharmacology, Vol.18(2), pp.135-144
- DOI
- 10.1037/a0018871
- PMID
- 20384425
- NLM abbreviation
- Exp Clin Psychopharmacol
- ISSN
- 1064-1297
- eISSN
- 1936-2293
- Publisher
- Amer Psychological Assoc
- Number of pages
- 10
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 04/01/2010
- Academic Unit
- Psychological and Brain Sciences; Iowa Neuroscience Institute
- Record Identifier
- 9984446529702771
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