Alcohol expectancies and sexuality

Alcohol Health & Research World,  Spring, 1991  by Mark S. Goldman,  Laurie Roehrich

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The possibility that the expectancy network may pass along "go" or "no go" signals to affective and action mechanisms is consistent with recent theories suggesting that drug reinforcement occurs because particular neurochemical systems in the brain are activated (Panksepp 1982; Stewart et al. 1984; Baker et al. 1987; Wise 1988). Also, activation of expectancies of the effects of alcohol on sexual response may lead to activation of central mechanisms that trigger sexual responses (the hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis; see the article by Doria, pp. 101-103). Hence, these processes represent hypothesized links between brain software and biological hardware.

Prevention and Application to Treatment

Conceptualized as a memory network that plays a role in connecting early learning about alcohol with later drinking decisions, alcohol expectancies represent opportunities for prevention and intervention. It may be possible to challenge and alter expectancies early on, so as to impede the casual chain that leads to alcohol use. The best results for such a strategy would occur with children in the age range of 8 to 10 years--when expectancies appear to consolidate. Interfering with the development of expectancies during these ages might lower the risk for eventual alcohol abuse, and such interference would be especially important for children of families with histories of alcoholism. An initial effort using films aimed at young children has yielded encouraging results (Kraus et al. 1990).

More extensive work has been carried out in a series of so-called challenge sesons with college students. In the first of these studies, a modest effort was made to challenge expectancies and to see if drinking behaviors might thereby change (Henderson and Goldman 1987). Groups of female subjects were told that they would be administered small amounts of alcohol and then shown slides of men in various poses. The ostensible purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of alcohol on the women's judgments of male attractiveness. After displaying the slides and observing risque comments by the women, the researchers informed them that the beverage had been a placebo. All thought they were slightly intoxicated, and so were surprised. In a following discussion, the subjects were told how easily humans can be tricked by their expectations of alcohol's effects. The subjects proceeded, in the absence of any instructions, to lower their alcohol consumption over a subsequent 2-week period as much as did another group of subjects who had been exposed to a film designed to teach responsible drinking to college students. Both groups decreased their drinking more than did a control group that received no treatment.

To avoid the problems that might develop if the experiment were based on repeated deceptions (the truth about the beverage content could disseminate across the college campus, thereby compromising the effectiveness of the manipulation), a second study used a more straightforward procedure (Massey and Goldman 1988). In this study, female subjects were told that they would be given either alcohol or a placebo, and their task was to detect whether they or any of the other subjects had received alcohol. The beverages were consumed in a party atmosphere in which the subjects played charades. An additional group of underage subjects, who knew they would not receive alcohol, were asked to identify older subjects who had consumed alcohol. The purpose of the underage group was to enable researchers to assess whether the expectancy challenge would work in subjects who were primarily observers.