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Related Experiment Videos

Dissonance and alcohol: drinking your troubles away

C M Steele, L L Southwick, B Critchlow

    Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
    |November 1, 1981
    PubMed
    Summary

    Drinking alcohol can reduce cognitive dissonance, an unpleasant emotional state. This study suggests alcohol consumption may reinforce drinking behaviors as a way to alleviate psychological discomfort, potentially contributing to alcohol abuse.

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    Area of Science:

    • Psychology
    • Social Psychology
    • Behavioral Science

    Background:

    • Cognitive dissonance is recognized as an unpleasant emotional state.
    • Alcohol consumption has known effects on emotional and cognitive processes.

    Purpose of the Study:

    • To investigate if social drinkers increase alcohol consumption when experiencing cognitive dissonance.
    • To determine if drinking alcohol reduces cognitive dissonance and subsequent attitude change.

    Main Methods:

    • Participants wrote counterattitudinal essays to induce cognitive dissonance.
    • Subjects then rated alcoholic beverages to measure alcohol consumption.
    • Attitude change was measured post-drinking to assess dissonance reduction.

    Main Results:

    • Dissonance arousal did not significantly increase alcohol consumption.
    • However, any alcohol consumed effectively eliminated dissonance-reducing attitude change.
    • This effect was observed in both light and heavy social drinkers.

    Conclusions:

    • Alcohol consumption can reduce cognitive dissonance without requiring cognitive change.
    • This mechanism may contribute to the development of alcohol abuse through reinforcement.
    • Dissonance reduction can occur via affective amelioration rather than cognitive restructuring.

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