Alcohol, Affect, and Aggression: An Investigation of Alcohol's Effects Following Ostracism

Ostracism is distressing to those who experience it and people are motivated to find ways to cope, including self-medication or aggression. However, we know little about how alcohol intoxication may affect individuals' reactions to ostracism. This study investigates predictions informed by Alcohol Myopia Theory to observe how alcohol influences changes to one's affect, basic needs fulfillment, and aggression following ostracism.

Participants (N = 97) were randomly assigned to either consume an alcohol, placebo, or nonalcohol beverage, and then participate in a game that simulated ostracism. Following this, participants engaged in a task wherein they were able to aggress against an ostensible ostracizer. Affect and basic psychological needs were measured at baseline, post-ostracism, and post-aggression timepoints.

Results indicated that all groups reacted adversely to ostracism and experienced partial recovery toward baseline for negative and positive affect and basic psychological needs. Further, alcohol facilitated recovery across these outcomes post-aggression for participants who felt more intoxicated. Alcohol, relative to the control beverages, increased ostracizer-directed aggression intensity for low trait physically aggressive, but not highly aggressive, people.

This randomized study provides novel preliminary evidence suggesting that alcohol enhances aggressive urges toward ostracizers in those who are not typically aggressive. Those who feel more drunk when intoxicated, compared to those who feel less so, may experience greater recovery from ostracism after aggressing toward an ostracizer hinting at potentially pleasurable effects that must be replicated in future studies.