Can Alcohol Inhibit Aggression?

The belligerence associated with barrooms and their brawls is just one possible effect of alcohol consumption, shows a new study by University of Kentucky psychologists.

Hypothesizing an "attention-allocation model" that proposes drinking affects the areas of the brain controlling attention and working memory, thus making it easier to focus only on threatening or provocative social cues, professor Peter Giancola and student Michelle Corman studied a group of young men. Half of the subjects remained sober, while the others had three or four vodka screwdrivers. They then participated in a stressful competition in which the winning team gave the losers an electrical shock after each round. The psychologists further required some of the subjects who had consumed alcohol to simultaneously perform a memory task in hopes of occupying their limited capacities with thoughts outside of the hostile situation.

The researchers found that the memory task did indeed serve as a distractor, inhibiting aggression in the men who performed it. They therefore concluded that alcohol can serve to either increase or inhibit aggression, depending upon where attention is focused. The findings further suggest that the working memory decreased by alcohol consumption is critical to all social functioning, allowing the capacity for self-reflection and planning.

ABSTRACT: Alcohol and Aggression: A Test of the Attention-Allocation Model