Experimentally induced anxiety attenuates alcohol-related aggression in men

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that state anxiety operates as moderator of the alcohol-aggression relation. Participants were 80 healthy male social drinkers between 21 and 33 years of age. They were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups: (a) alcohol + anxiety induction (n = 20), (b) placebo + anxiety induction (n = 20), (c) alcohol + no anxiety induction (n = 20), and (d) placebo + no anxiety induction (n = 20). Anxiety was induced by informing participants that they had to deliver a speech about what they liked and disliked about their body in front of a video camera. A modified version of the Taylor Aggression Paradigm (S. Taylor, 1967) was then used to measure aggressive behavior in a situation where electric shocks were administered to, and received from, a fictitious opponent under the guise of a competitive reaction time task. Results indicated that the anxiety induction was successful in suppressing aggression for participants who received alcohol equal to levels seen in placebo controls. Findings are discussed within the context of a number of theories of alcohol's anxiolytic effects in relation to intoxicated aggression.