The effect of cues of quantity visible and preference on drinking by alcoholic and non-alcoholic subjects

When a glass (150 ml) of a preferred/non-preferred orange drink was visible alcoholic subjects drank less than non-alcoholics. When a glass+jug (900 ml) was visible the alcoholics drank significantly more than the non-alcoholics. The cues of quantity visible and preference had an additive effect on the alcoholics' consumption. The experiment was modelled on a study by Nisbett (1968 a) concerned with cues controlling food intake in obese and non-obese subjects. An analogy was drawn between overeating by the obese and overdrinking by alcoholics.