Overview
Alcohol is truly a double-edged sword. It has brought merriment to celebratory revelers at social gatherings since biblical times. Yet, research suggests it can negatively affect one’s short-term and long-term health. So why do we still imbibe? The answer may involve social norms.
Like so many other rituals in society, whether and how much we drink is often nudged by the habits of our friends, colleagues, and others, both at that moment and from the years leading up to it. The long history of alcohol consumption in social contexts has made it a collective habit that’s difficult to kick.
Even in our own research we’ve found evidence of how the appearance of drinking alcohol can affect psychological perceptions. In one experiment, we found that drinking wine made a person seem more sophisticated.
But there are a number of people who chose to abstain from drinking alcohol, even when meeting up with friends at bars or pubs. Do these abstainers suffer a social penalty for not imbibing?
The Experiment
We recruited 400 people from Amazon Mechanical Turk to read a short vignette about meeting up after work with a new co-worker who orders a beer or a soda (randomly assigned). Participants then rated their perceptions of this hypothetical co-worker.
Participants were told to “Imagine you’re at a bar meeting a new co-worker after work. He orders a [beer / Coke] and asks how your workday was.” Participants were then asked two survey questions, “So far, how fun do you think this person is? (1 = Not fun at all, 7 = Very fun”) and “So far, how much do you like this person? (1 = Not at all, 7 = Very much)” both using a 1-7 scale.
To test if our results differ between drinkers and non-drinkers, we asked participants at the end of the survey “How often do you have a drink containing alcohol?” with answer options Never, Monthly or less, 2 to 4 times a month, 2 to 3 times a week, and 4 or more times a week.
Results
There was no significant difference in how fun our hypothetical colleague was perceived to be when drinking Coke (avg. = 4.75) versus beer (avg. = 4.67), (p = 0.487). Nor did the results change when considering participants’ gender (p = 0.967), age (p = 0.766), or alcohol consumption habits (p = 0.372).
Likability analyses showed similar results. No significant differences in likability were identified when our person was drinking Coke (avg. = 5.12) versus beer (avg. = 5.07), (p = 0.654). The results were unaffected by participants’ gender (p = 0.918), age (p = 0.602), or alcohol consumption habits (p = 0.603).
Conclusion
Whether you choose to imbibe or abstain from beer, it doesn't seem to affect how fun or likable you appear to your colleagues. This is good news if you’re trying to reduce your alcohol consumption but worry about what friends or colleagues might think of you. Of course, these results could differ across countries or cultures. For example, some countries acknowledge that there is a culture of peer pressure to drink in social outings. But in the U.S., in this day and age, enjoy your Coke.
Methods Note
To test for significant differences in likability between our experimental conditions, we used an independent samples t-test. For statistically significant results, the difference between the averages of the two groups would be large, and the corresponding “p-value” would be small (p < 0.05). This indicates that if we were to replicate the study with the same population, we would likely obtain a similar effect. Additionally, we utilized OLS regression analyses with interaction terms to explore potential significant interactions between the main results and participant demographics, such as age and gender.
Data and survey materials used for this experiment are available upon request.