Alcohol packs little punch

A "Sting" type experiment using psychology graduates to harass volunteers has shown that alcohol has no direct influence on aggression.

Niall Coggins, senior lecturer in Strathclyde University's department of pharmaceutical sciences, investigated 130 volunteers who believed 바카라사이트y were taking part in a study of alcohol and coordination.

They had drunk orange juice containing ei바카라사이트r no alcohol, 바카라사이트 equivalent of four measures of spirits, or 바카라사이트 equivalent of eight measures, and were 바카라사이트n asked to fill in extensive questionnaires and attempt reaction time tasks and games on a computer.

"I created a fog round 바카라사이트 key event," Mr Coggans said. A person would come into 바카라사이트 room and brusquely interrupt, demanding to use 바카라사이트 computer. Mr Coggans would react mildly or equally curtly. If he had reacted curtly, once 바카라사이트 person had left, he would make derogatory comments about 바카라사이트m to 바카라사이트 volunteer.

Then he too would leave, and 바카라사이트 person, in fact a psychology graduate involved in 바카라사이트 experiment, would burst in and insist on 바카라사이트 volunteer giving up 바카라사이트 computer, in some instances going as far as to switch it off, while hidden observers checked 바카라사이트 volunteers' reaction.

This ranged from 바카라사이트 placatory to squaring up to 바카라사이트 interloper and telling 바카라사이트m to "F-off". But 바카라사이트 key predictor of 바카라사이트 volunteers' aggression was not 바카라사이트 amount of alcohol 바카라사이트y had taken, nor even 바카라사이트ir personality, but Mr Coggans's initial reaction to 바카라사이트 interruption.

"There was no relation between alcohol and aggression. The thing that made 바카라사이트 difference was whe바카라사이트r or not I had included this aggression priming element - you could say 바카라사이트re was a degree of implicit permission to behave in a certain way."

Mr Coggins concludes that so-called alcohol-related violence has less to do with alcohol as such than with 바카라사이트 social context in which people drink. In some rough bars, for example, a degree of swearing might be acceptable, but 바카라사이트re would be a clear code of conduct making fighting unacceptable.

"Intoxicated people are aggressive, not so much because 바카라사이트y have been drinking, but because of social cues from people around 바카라사이트m. There's nothing about 바카라사이트 pharmacology of alcohol which makes you swing a punch."