Drink and be merry? The impact of intoxication and affective social cues on social drinkers’ emotional responses

Background: While alcohol’s ability to impact affective states and lubricate social interactions is well documented, less research has considered this in crowd contexts. Method: Using a Social Emotion Paradigm, intoxicated (.8 g/kg) or sober (placebo) participants (N = 47, 49% female, Mage = 21.47) were presented with virtually modeled groups of characters displaying various affective states (happy, neutral, sad). Participants’ emotional responses to the stimuli were assessed via self-report (Study 1) and, one week later, objective measures of facial muscle movement (facial electromyography; Study 2). Results: ‘Study 1’: Self-reported emotions largely mirrored the emotive displays, pointing to emotional contagion. No significant effect of intoxication was apparent. ‘Study 2’: Compared to those in the sober conditions, significantly more smiling occurred among intoxicated participants when viewing sad crowds. Conclusion: Discrepancies between objective and subjective measures of emotion were evident and intoxication may be associated with socially inappropriate affective responses to sad crowds. These findings have implications for understanding alcohol behaviors in the nighttime economy.