Social influences on alcohol consumption by black and white males

Thirty-two black and 32 white male normal drinkers participated in a beer taste test either simultaneously (co-action condition) with a heavy drinking black or white experimental accomplice or while the accomplice completed an art rating task (control observer condition). Subjects in the co-action condition drank significantly more beer (p less than .001) than subjects in the control observer condition, regardless of their race or the race of the accomplice. Subjects' post-experimental questionnaire answers indicated they did not perceive themselves to be in competition with the accomplice. The mechanism underlying the robust co-action facilitation effect on drinking, now demonstrated in several studies and extended to black males in the present study, remains unexplained.