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Drunken habits -

The side effects of drinking alcohol are well documented: some people become more confident and less inhibited, while others become more aggressive and hostile.

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Ethanol as a depressant -

These experiences are common among people who drink alcohol, and yet it’s strange because the active ingredient in alcohol is actually a depressant.

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Curious -

This means that the side effects many people report when drinking alcohol are actually the opposite of what we might expect.

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'The Expectation Effect' -

In his book ‘The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Transform Your Life,’ author David Robson theorizes about what happens in our brains when we drink.

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The theory -

He suggests that the way we behave when we have a couple of drinks is largely dictated by our prior beliefs and expectations about alcohol.

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Other applications -

Robson argues that this is unsurprising, given that our expectations affect our experiences in many other areas of our lives.

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The placebo effect -

The placebo effect, for example, shows this in action: the mere belief that a medicine will be effective can increase its efficacy, independent of its chemical composition.

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And others -

We also know that our expectations can impact the benefits of our workouts, our reactions to a change in diet, and even our experience of insomnia and jet lag.

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Evidence -

Some of the strongest evidence of the impact of the expectation effect on drinkers dates back to an experiment conducted in France in the late 2000s.

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The experiment -

A researcher at Université Grenoble Alpes set up an experiment that used fake taste testing to measure the aggression of people under the influence of alcohol.

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The experiment -

The participants were each given three cocktails. For some participants, those cocktails contained no alcohol at all, while for others the alcohol content was medium or high.

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Important -

Crucially, the participants did not know the alcohol content of the cocktails they were consuming. This meant that the researcher was able to test the impact of their expectations.

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The test -

The aggression test involved a plate of mashed potatoes, which each participant was asked to season with hot sauce and salt and then feed to a partner.

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Undercover -

The partner, who was actually an actor, was deliberately hostile to the participant, threatening to “blow their head off” with the hot sauce. It was thought this would incite feelings of revenge.

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Results -

Overall, results showed that the participants who believed they had drunk the alcoholic cocktails were more likely to serve up more hot sauce to their partner.

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Results explained -

The actual alcohol content of the cocktails consumed was much less important, which serves as strong evidence that expectation influences experience and behavior.

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Other experiments -

The same researcher has also tested the impact of expectation on our feelings of self-assurance when intoxicated.

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The drunken ad -

This experiment involved feeding cocktails, which may or may not have contained alcohol, to the participants and then asking them to write and film a short commercial for the drink.

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The test -

The participants were then asked to rate how attractive, original, and funny they were in the advertisement. Those who believed they were drunk scored themselves higher.

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The results -

Experiments such as those just described are strong evidence of the impact of the expectation effect, but they do only take single instances into consideration.

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Long term -

A recent paper by a psychologist at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) considers the impact of the expectation effect on drinking behavior over the long term.

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The study -

A group of 400 participants aged between 18 and 79 were asked to rate a number of alcohol consumption related statements on a scale from 1 (disagree) to 4 (agree).

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The study -

Examples of the statements included “When I drink alcohol, I expect that I would feel courageous” or “... I expect that I would feel calm.”

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Following up -

After a month he followed up with the participants on both their alcohol use and experiences during the previous 30 days.

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Hardly surprising -

Unsurprisingly, he found that the expectations of the participants influenced the amount they drank: those who expected positive feelings drank more.

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More surprising -

He also found, however, that the expectations of the participants influenced their behavior. Those who expected to become boisterous acted in more extreme, out of character ways.

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Verbatim -

To quote the researching psychologist himself, "These beliefs serve as mental filters that guide what happens after we drink."

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Disclaimer -

It is important to note that these studies focused on moderate drinking among healthy populations. A shift in expectation will not change the behavior of someone with a serious problem.

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Food for thought -

For moderate drinkers, however, it seems worth thinking about your expectations of alcohol and how changing them could influence your overall experience.

Sources: (BBC)

See also: Easy ways to hydrate without drinking water

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