Judgment of intoxication by untrained social drinkers across drinking settings

Subjects' perceptions of cues used to judge intoxication across different drinking setting were investigated. Drinkers at a fraternity dance party and in a college town bar rated the importance of 18 cues for making estimations of their level of intoxication. Results indicated that 11 of the 18 cues were rated as more important in the party situation than in the bar situation. These results suggest that subjects apply cues to intoxication differently in different situations.