Alcohol and group formation: a multimodal investigation of the effects of alcohol on emotion and social bonding.

We integrated research on emotion and on small groups to address a fundamental and enduring question facing alcohol researchers: What are the specific mechanisms that underlie the reinforcing effects of drinking? In one of the largest alcohol-administration studies yet conducted, we employed a novel group-formation paradigm to evaluate the socioemotional effects of alcohol. Seven hundred twenty social drinkers (360 male, 360 female) were assembled into groups of 3 unacquainted persons each and given a moderate dose of an alcoholic, placebo, or control beverage, which they consumed over 36 min. These groups' social interactions were video recorded, and the duration and sequence of interaction partners' facial and speech behaviors were systematically coded (e.g., using the facial action coding system). Alcohol consumption enhanced individual- and group-level behaviors associated with positive affect, reduced individual-level behaviors associated with negative affect, and elevated self-reported bonding. Our results indicate that alcohol facilitates bonding during group formation. Assessing nonverbal responses in social contexts offers new directions for evaluating the effects of alcohol.

Self-Expression While Drinking Alcohol: Alcohol Influences Personality Expression During First Impressions.

People are motivated to be perceived both positively and accurately and, therefore, approach social settings and adopt means that allow them to reach these goals. We investigated whether alcohol consumption helps or hinders the positivity and accuracy of social impressions using a thin-slicing paradigm to better understand the effects of alcohol in social settings and the influence of alcohol on self-expression. These possibilities were tested in a sample of 720 participants randomly assigned to consume an alcohol, placebo, or control beverage while engaged in conversation in three-person groups. We found support for the hypothesis that alcohol (compared with placebo or control) increased the positivity of observers' personality expression, but did not find support for the hypothesis that alcohol increased the accuracy of personality expression. These findings contribute to our understanding of the social consequences of alcohol consumption, shedding new light on the interpersonal benefits that alcohol can foster.

Experiencing cigarette craving with a friend: A shared reality analysis.

Cigarette craving predicts relapse to smoking, which remains the leading cause of preventable death in the United States. Understanding why individuals smoke has important clinical implications and is a research priority. Nonlaboratory studies reveal that social factors, such as the presence of other people, are associated with self-reported craving, yet laboratory smoking research has largely ignored these factors by testing participants in isolation. In this study, a shared reality framework was used to evaluate social processes that may change when smokers experience craving while in the presence of a smoking friend versus in social isolation. Sixty pairs of smoking friends (n = 120) arrived together at the laboratory following a required 5 hr of smoking abstinence. One preselected (target) participant then underwent an in vivo smoking cue-exposure craving induction with their friend either present or in another room, completing an unrelated task. Target participants who were together with their friend while craving experienced a greater sense of similarity and felt closer to their friend than did those who were alone. Furthermore, in the together condition, shared Duchenne smiles (using the Facial Action Coding System) were associated with targets' ratings of perceived similarity to their friend. Though social context did not influence affect or urge to smoke, urge was associated with targets' ratings of similarity in the together, but not the alone condition. Results highlight the potential social utility of craving (satisfying epistemic and relational goals) and highlight the need for increased laboratory research on smoking that includes a social context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

The effects of alcohol on positive emotion during a comedy routine: A facial coding analysis.

There is considerable interest in understanding the emotional effects of alcohol. While a great deal of experimental research has focused on alcohol's ability to relieve negative emotions, there has been far less focus on the effects of alcohol on positive emotions. Further, the available research on positive emotion tends to test alcohol while participants are alone. Yet alcohol is often consumed in social settings, and enhancing social pleasure is consistently identified as being a primary motive for drinking. We aimed to address this gap in the literature by investigating the impact of alcohol on positive emotional experience in a social setting. We used the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) to examine in a large sample the effects of alcohol on response to comedy in a group setting. Five hundred thirteen social drinkers (51.9% female) were assembled into groups of three unacquainted persons and administered either a moderate dose of alcohol, a placebo, or a nonalcohol control beverage. Following beverage consumption, groups listened to a roughly 5-min comedy clip while their facial expressions were video recorded. More than 5 million frames of video were then FACS-coded. Alcohol consumption enhanced enjoyment (Duchenne) smiles-but not nonenjoyment social smiles-and elevated mood ratings. Results provide multimodal evidence supporting the ability of alcohol to enhance positive emotional experience during a comedy routine delivered in a social context. More broadly, this research illustrates the value of studying emotion in a social context using both self-report and behavior-expressive approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Addiction training and multiple treatments for all clinical psychologists: Reply to Freimuth (2018).

The authors agree with Freimuth (2018) that addiction training among clinical psychologists would be enhanced by offering addiction-related training to all clinical students, including those who do not aim to specialize in substance abuse. It is argued that Freimuth's points in fact support Dimoff, Sayette, and Norcross's (2017) recommendation that clinical programs bolster their addiction training but, contrary to Freimuth, in all evidence-based (abstinence and nonabstinence) treatments predicated on patient needs, not on practitioner preferences. (PsycINFO Database Record

The case for investigating social context in laboratory studies of smoking.

BACKGROUND: With increasing frequency, addiction is conceived of as a brain disease, and such accounts seem especially pertinent with regard to the rapid delivery of nicotine to the brain via cigarette smoke. Moreover, drug administration trials (cigarette puffs) suggest that the behavior of smoking becomes automatized, with individuals developing prototypical approaches to smoking a cigarette. Compared with presumably more social activities, such as drinking alcohol, there may be little opportunity for social processes to influence smoking behavior. However, survey research examining smoking motivation often reveals a broadly defined 'social' factor and field research suggests that social context does influence smoking. ARGUMENT: We posit that laboratory smoking research has largely ignored social contextual factors that may help to understand better the precise mechanisms underlying smoking behavior and smoking motivation. METHOD: We reviewed laboratory studies examining the effect of social context (operationalized as modeling) on smoking behavior. Studies were identified by searching PsychInfo and Medline using the following keywords: smoking, nicotine, tobacco, cigarette, consumption, topography, puff, smoking behavior, cigarettes smoked, modeling, imitation, social context, social influence and peer pressure. The reference and citation lists of these studies were then searched to identify additional studies. CONCLUSIONS: Few laboratory smoking studies target social context. Those few studies indicate that smoking behavior can be influenced by the presence of others. There is also some evidence that social context influences the effects of smoking as well as processes related to self-perception and self-regulation that reinforce smoking and hamper smoking cessation efforts.

Addiction training in clinical psychology: Are we keeping up with the rising epidemic?

Addiction has emerged as a serious public health crisis. Clinical psychology as a hub science has a long-standing interest in addiction and is particularly well suited to offer multifaceted treatment to those struggling with substance use disorders. To examine how well clinical psychology training is addressing this proliferation of addiction-related problems, we surveyed the directors of clinical training at all APA-accredited U.S. clinical psychology doctoral programs on 7 occasions between 1999 and 2013. The number of clinical programs rose from 181 to 237 programs across the years, with at least 95% response at each wave of data collection. Results indicated that less than 40% of programs had even 1 faculty member studying addiction, and less than 1 third offered any specialty clinical training in addiction. Results also revealed that both the percentage of programs reporting any faculty studying addiction and the percentage of programs offering specialty clinics in addiction have not increased over the 14-year period. We argue that clinical psychology training must bolster its focus on addiction research and practice. (PsycINFO Database Record

In search of anticipatory cigarette cravings: The impact of perceived smoking opportunity and motivation to seek treatment.

Craving has long been considered central to addiction, but it remains unclear just how it contributes to drug use or relapse. Improved understanding of its role in addiction requires a more fine-grained examination of craving, including the context in which it occurs. This study used a novel set of smoking-related and unrelated stimuli to investigate the responses of 227 nicotine-deprived smokers under conditions that manipulated perceived smoking opportunity and motivation to quit smoking. Specifically, we contrasted features of preconsumptive states when active smokers anticipate smoking soon to states when smokers do not have this expectation. Results indicated that under certain conditions (smokers not interested in quitting who expected to be able to smoke soon), exposure to smoking cues becomes attractive. Specifically, these smokers found smoking-related images to be more pleasant than did smokers who were either motivated to quit smoking within the next month or who were informed that they would not be permitted to smoke during the experiment. More broadly, the study raises the possibility that the loss of routinely experienced pleasant cravings upon quitting smoking may yield challenges to staying quit and requires greater clinical attention. (PsycINFO Database Record

Speech volume indexes sex differences in the social-emotional effects of alcohol.

Men and women differ dramatically in their rates of alcohol use disorder (AUD), and researchers have long been interested in identifying mechanisms underlying male vulnerability to problem drinking. Surveys suggest that social processes underlie sex differences in drinking patterns, with men reporting greater social enhancement from alcohol than women, and all-male social drinking contexts being associated with particularly high rates of hazardous drinking. But experimental evidence for sex differences in social-emotional response to alcohol has heretofore been lacking. Research using larger sample sizes, a social context, and more sensitive measures of alcohol's rewarding effects may be necessary to better understand sex differences in the etiology of AUD. This study explored the acute effects of alcohol during social exchange on speech volume--an objective measure of social-emotional experience that was reliably captured at the group level. Social drinkers (360 male; 360 female) consumed alcohol (.82 g/kg males; .74 g/kg females), placebo, or a no-alcohol control beverage in groups of 3 over 36-min. Within each of the 3 beverage conditions, equal numbers of groups consisted of all males, all females, 2 females and 1 male, and 1 female and 2 males. Speech volume was monitored continuously throughout the drink period, and group volume emerged as a robust correlate of self-report and facial indexes of social reward. Notably, alcohol-related increases in group volume were observed selectively in all-male groups but not in groups containing any females. Results point to social enhancement as a promising direction for research exploring factors underlying sex differences in problem drinking.

The effects of alcohol and dosage-set on risk-seeking behavior in groups and individuals.

A great deal of risky activity occurs in social contexts, yet only recently have studies begun to examine the impact of drinking on risk-seeking behavior in groups. The present study sought to extend this work by examining both pharmacological and expectancy (dosage-set) effects of drinking. In addition, by using a much larger sample than in prior studies we aimed to increase the power to examine how drinking affects the decision-making process (i.e., Does the initial proposed decision stand, or does it shift during discussion to a safer or riskier final decision?). Seven hundred twenty unacquainted social drinkers (half female) were randomly assigned to three-person groups that consumed alcohol (0.82 g/kg males; 0.74 g/kg females), a placebo, or a no-alcohol control beverage. After drinking, participants decided whether to complete a 30-min questionnaire battery (the less risky choice) or toss a coin and, pending the outcome of that toss, complete either no questionnaires or a 60-min battery (the riskier choice). Neither drinking nor believing one had been drinking affected the decision to toss the coin when participants deliberated in isolation. In contrast, when the decision occurred in a group context, groups led to believe they were drinking alcohol (i.e., groups administered alcohol or placebo beverages) were significantly more likely than groups knowing they had consumed a nonalcoholic beverage (i.e., groups administered a no-alcohol control beverage) to choose the coin toss. Results extend prior findings highlighting the effects of alcohol dosage-set in social contexts.

DRD4 polymorphism moderates the effect of alcohol consumption on social bonding.

Development of interpersonal relationships is a fundamental human motivation, and behaviors facilitating social bonding are prized. Some individuals experience enhanced reward from alcohol in social contexts and may be at heightened risk for developing and maintaining problematic drinking. We employed a 3 (group beverage condition) ×2 (genotype) design (N = 422) to test the moderating influence of the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4 VNTR) polymorphism on the effects of alcohol on social bonding. A significant gene x environment interaction showed that carriers of at least one copy of the 7-repeat allele reported higher social bonding in the alcohol, relative to placebo or control conditions, whereas alcohol did not affect ratings of 7-absent allele carriers. Carriers of the 7-repeat allele were especially sensitive to alcohol's effects on social bonding. These data converge with other recent gene-environment interaction findings implicating the DRD4 polymorphism in the development of alcohol use disorders, and results suggest a specific pathway by which social factors may increase risk for problematic drinking among 7-repeat carriers. More generally, our findings highlight the potential utility of employing transdisciplinary methods that integrate genetic methodologies, social psychology, and addiction theory to improve theories of alcohol use and abuse.