Peers Impact Drinking Behavior
Posted on July 23, 2013
Curious about whether your peers impact your drinking behavior?
For most individuals, alcohol consumption is a social phenomenon, at least at the outset of their drinking. Previous research suggests that most human behavior is learned through imitation or modeling. Studies also suggest that imitation plays a role in addictive behaviors. Previous wine-tasting studies have demonstrated that participants exposed to a heavy-drinking model consume more alcohol. However, in these studies the participants knew beforehand that they would be consuming alcohol. Researchers from Canada and The Netherlands examined the effect of exposure to a heavy-drinking model on imitation of drinking behavior in a more naturalistic setting (Larsen et. al., 2009). Spoiler alert: our peers' drinking behaviors im...
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