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Related Experiment Video

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Disruption of Frontal Lobe Neural Synchrony During Cognitive Control by Alcohol Intoxication

Disruption of Frontal Lobe Neural Synchrony During Cognitive Control by Alcohol Intoxication

Published on: February 6, 2019

Alcohol affects goal commitment by explicitly and implicitly induced myopia.

A Timur Sevincer¹, Gabriele Oettingen, Tobias Lerner

¹Psychology Department, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany. timur.sevincer@unihamburg.de

Journal of Abnormal Psychology

|October 19, 2011

Summary

Alcohol intoxication reduces commitment to important goals, especially when success seems unlikely. This effect occurs because alcohol myopia causes individuals to focus only on the most prominent goal aspects, ignoring others.

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Area of Science:

Psychology
Neuroscience
Social Psychology

Background:

Alcohol myopia theory posits that alcohol intoxication narrows attentional focus to salient stimuli.
This theory suggests that intoxicated individuals may ignore peripheral information relevant to decision-making.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how alcohol consumption affects commitment to personally important goals under conditions of low expected success.
To examine the role of alcohol myopia in mediating the relationship between goal expectations and commitment.

Main Methods:

Two studies were conducted involving student participants who consumed either alcohol or a placebo.
Low expectations of goal attainment were manipulated through explicit questionnaires (Study 1) and implicit subliminal priming (Study 2).
Commitment to personally important goals was measured in both studies.

Main Results:

Alcohol consumption significantly reduced commitment to important goals when expectations of success were low.
This effect was observed irrespective of whether low expectations were explicitly stated or implicitly primed.
Participants in the alcohol condition showed less commitment compared to the placebo group.

Conclusions:

Alcohol intoxication, through the mechanism of alcohol myopia, diminishes commitment to goals when salient aspects suggest low probability of success.
The findings highlight that alcohol's influence on goal commitment is dependent on the currently activated aspects of the goal, whether explicit or implicit.