The effects of expectations of self-intoxication and partner's drinking on anxiety in dyadic social interaction

Thirty-two male social drinkers were randomly assigned to four conditions in a 2 ×2 factorial design that controlled for differential expectations concerning alcohol consumption in a dyadic social interaction. Subjects were led to believe that they had consumed either alcohol or tonic water (no alcohol was actually administered)prior to interacting with a female confederate. Half of each of these groups were told that the confederate was another subject in the study who had just consumed a moderate amount of alcohol; the other half were simply informed that the confederate was another subject. Multiple measures of anxiety, including heart rate, observational ratings, and self-report, were obtained. Subjects who believed that the female had been drinking showed significantly less anxiety than their counterparts who did not have this information. There were no major effects of the self-intoxication expectation. The theoretical significance of these findings is discussed.