Talking about alcohol can make you as aggressive as drinking it: Words such as 'beer' and 'wine' cause people to be hostile

  • The study was conducted via two experiments involving U.S. students
  • In one test, students were exposed to words including 'whiskey' and 'wine'
  • The second test saw students exposed to words such as 'milk' and 'water'
  • When hearing alcohol-related words, participants demonstrated increased aggression - but only when the insult was ambiguous

By Victoria Woollaston

Published: 09:15 EST, 6 June 2014 | Updated: 09:46 EST, 6 June 2014

Just talking about drinking and mentioning words like ‘beer’ and ‘wine’ can make sober people behave as aggressively as they would when drunk, according to psychologists.

The subject and the words can trigger violence among non-drinkers, particularly if they're in a place where others are drinking, such as a party or bar.

But this aggressive behave only occurred when provoked, and typically when the provocation could not be clearly interpreted as an insult.

Just talking about drinking and mentioning words like 'whiskey' and 'wine' can make sober people behave as aggressively as they would when drunk, according to psychologists. The subject and the words can trigger violence among non-drinkers, particularly if they are in a place where others are drinking

Just talking about drinking and mentioning words like 'whiskey' and 'wine' can make sober people behave as aggressively as they would when drunk, according to psychologists. The subject and the words can trigger violence among non-drinkers, particularly if they are in a place where others are drinking

It is widely acknowledged that drink fuels aggressive behaviour, but experiments by the University of Kent, California State University, and the University of Missouri, show even mentioning it can have the same effect.

In the first test, half of the students were exposed to alcohol primes - for example, the words 'wine', 'beer' and 'whiskey' - while the other half were exposed to non-alcohol primes - for example, 'milk', 'water' and 'juice' - prior to receiving feedback on an essay they had written.

Participants demonstrated increased 'aggressive retaliation' when provoked by the essay feedback, but only when the provocation could not be clearly interpreted as an insult.

An unambiguous or clear provocation produced highly aggressive responses, regardless of whether a person was primed with alcohol or not.

Participants demonstrated increased aggressive retaliation (stock image pictured) when provoked by the essay feedback. An unambiguous or clear provocation produced highly aggressive responses, regardless of whether a person was primed with alcohol or not

Participants demonstrated increased aggressive retaliation (stock image pictured) when provoked by the essay feedback. An unambiguous or clear provocation produced highly aggressive responses, regardless of whether a person was primed with alcohol or not

MEN WHO DRINK HEAVILY ARE MORE LIKELY TO HAVE TEETOTAL SONS

Men who drink heavily are more likely to have sons who shun alcohol in later life, new research suggests.

However, the study also showed the fathers’ drinking has no effect on their daughters’ alcohol intake.

Lab experiments suggest the drinking behaviour of men influences their male offspring’s genes before they are even conceived.

But surprisingly, there was no effect on their female offspring

The findings go against previous human studies which showed alcoholism may run in families, particularly from father to son.

To date only a few human gene variants have been linked to alcoholism, which account for just a small fraction of the risk of inheriting the problem.

But tests on male mice given copious amounts of alcohol prior to breeding later had male offspring that were less likely to consume the drug and were more sensitive to its effects.

The second experiment, however, showed that the effects of alcohol priming are fairly short-lived.

The effect begins to diminish after seven minutes, and is gone after about fifteen minutes following exposure to alcohol-related words.

It also revealed that alcohol priming influenced aggression by making the ambiguous provocation appear more hostile.

Dr Vasquez, of Kent's School of Psychology, said: 'These results provide another strong demonstration that exposing someone to alcohol-related words alone can influence social behaviour in ways that are consistent with the effects of alcohol consumption.

'Our research also examined the parameters within which alcohol priming is likely to affect aggression.

'These effects seem to occur primarily when the provocation is not clear-cut and obvious, and are thus more open to interpretation.

'Under alcohol priming, the interpretation becomes more negative, and people become more aggressive.

'We've shown that people attending events where alcohol is typically present do not have to drink to experience, or be subject to, the aggression-enhancing effects of alcohol, a fact that would seem to suggest caution in all such environments.'