Effects of alcohol on power in social interaction between man and woman

From the McClelland et al. theory it was hypothesized that the distribution of power defined in terms of both outcome and process would be affected by alcohol in a man-woman dyad interaction situation by increasing power of the intoxicated partner. Man-woman couples (N = 30) were randomly assigned to an alcohol, a placebo or a control group. The men in the alcohol group were served a beverage containing 0.8 ml of absolute alcohol per kg of body weight. In the placebo group, the men were served a drink of orange juice and vodka essence, and the men in the control group received only orange juice. The women in all groups were served only orange juice. The same information about the kind of drinks to be served was given to both the men and the women in their respective groups. Each couple was tested individually and the experimental task consisted of 20 equal trials. The man and the woman were asked to give an individual estimation of the length of a line projected on a screen. They were then instructed to discuss their individual answers and to come to a mutual agreement on the length of the line. Outcome power was defined as the influence each one had on the actual decision and process power as each one's influence on the interaction process. Results clearly show that sober women increase their outcome power and responsibility aspects of process power over the intoxicated men, while the intoxicated men retain some of their process power as estimated in quantitative terms. The hypothesis was not supported and alternative explanations were discussed.