The influence of alcohol on cognitive conflict

The influence of alcohol on cognitive conflict between individuals was studied by means of an experiment that was designed to be representative of real life negotiating situations, where alcohol is consumed and where two parties are required to find new common solutions to problems that they have previously learned to solve differently by themselves. The subjects were 60 male students of technology divided into experimental and control groups. The amount of alcohol (whisky) consumed by the experimental subjects produced approximately 0.08% blood alcohol concentration. In the experiment, the cognitive conflict situation was created by first training subjects to solve diagnostic medical tasks individually and then bringing two differently trained subjects together to find common solutions to similar diagnostic problems. The results showed that small amounts of alcohol do not influence cognitive behavior in a social situation where an individual has to find new solutions to problems that he has originally learned to solve in a certain way by himself.