State anxiety and alcohol choice: Evidence from experimental and online observational studies

Experimental studies have investigated the effects of physical, psychological and pharmacological stressors (that induce state anxiety) on alcohol outcomes. However, no study has investigated the effects of state anxiety on alcohol outcomes, and the moderating role of drinking to cope (DTC) motives, using the 7.5% carbon dioxide (CO₂) challenge.

We aimed to investigate the relationships between state anxiety and alcohol-related outcomes (primarily alcohol choice). We also explored whether DTC motives moderated these relationships.

We conducted two experiments using the 7.5% CO₂ challenge (Studies 1 and 2) and an observational study (Study 3) (ns = 42, 60 and 219, respectively), to triangulate findings.

In Study 1, experimentally induced state anxiety increased alcohol choice (p < .001, η_p² = .29). This finding was replicated in Study 2, but the effect was weaker (p = .076, η_p² = .06). Furthermore, DTC moderated the effect (p = .013, η_p²= .11). However, in Study 3 there was no clear evidence of an association between naturally occurring state anxiety and alcohol choice (b = 0.05, p = .655), or a moderating role of DTC (b = 0.01, p = .852).

Experimentally induced, but not naturally occurring, state anxiety increases alcohol choice, although state anxiety levels were lower in the non-manipulated sample.