A new study is seemingly debunking the myth that a person’s character change after having one or more drinks. According to research results, the differences between drunk personalities and sober ones are much lower than predicted by the people themselves. In other words, describing one as a “happy drunk” may not be necessarily true.
This new study comes from a team of University of Missouri scientists. They published a paper with their results in the Clinical Psychological Science. These are based both on self-reported observations as well as opinions from uninvolved third-parties.
Research was carried out with help from 156 volunteers. These agreed to complete a survey in which they had to describe their perceptions of their “sober” and “alcohol-imbibed” personalities. They also had to fill in details about their usual alcohol consumption rates.
Following this step, the scientists raised the participants’ blood alcohol level. This reached about .09, above the 0.08 legal limit for driving a car. Then, the volunteers were asked to complete a series of tasks, activities, and games. Their target was to bring out the participants’ drunk personalities.
Drunk Personalities, a Debunked Myth?
The team did note a significant difference following this step of the test. But not in its volunteers’ behavior. Rather, the researchers were surprised to discover vast differences in their perception of their alcohol-influenced behavior.
“We were surprised to find such a discrepancy between drinkers’ perceptions of their own alcohol-induced personalities and how observers perceived them,” said Rachel Winograd, a study researcher, in a statement.
Winograd explained that the participants reported feeling changes in all the factors counted by the Five Factor Model of personality. But in fact, their extraversion was the only one to suffer a significant change. This factor was the only one to change across all participants when comparing their sober to drunk personalities. The observers also noted this increased extraversion.
Used as a sort of control group, these were asked to observe and rate the participants’ personalities. Traits such as openness to experiences and conscientiousness were some of the most important points analyzed.
Although the volunteers reported substantial differences in these characteristics between their two selves, the onlookers noted that these changes were less drastic and fewer than perceived.
The study was carried out in the laboratory, so the results may differ when compared the same test done in a pub. However, Winograd states that this data could be of significant importance in alcohol intervention treatments, for example.
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