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Published on: January 5, 2018
Alcohol-related image priming and aggression in adolescents aged 11-14
Stephen L Brown1, Sarah M Coyne, Alexandra Barlow
1School of Dental Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK. slbrown@liverpool.ac.uk
Abstract:
In adults, alcohol-related stimuli prime aggressive responding without ingestion or belief of ingestion. This represents either experiential or socially-and culturally-mediated learning. Using a laboratory-based competitive aggression paradigm, we replicated adult findings in 103 11-14 year old adolescents below the legal UK drinking age. Using a two-independent group design, priming with alcohol-related imagery led participants to deliver louder noise punishments in a competition task than priming with beverage-related images. This effect was stronger in participants scoring low on an internalization measure. Priming effects in relatively alcohol-naïve participants could constitute evidence of socio-cultural transmission of scripts linking alcohol use and aggression. The enhanced effect in lower internalization scorers suggests that alcohol priming might undermine behavioral inhibition processes in otherwise stable adolescents.
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