Modeling influences on alcoholics' rates of alcohol consumption.
Adults with alcohol problems quickly copy the drinking pace of whoever sits beside them.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three adults with alcohol problems watched another person drink.
The other drinker was really a study helper told to sip either a lot or a little.
Each adult then drank in the same lab room and later in a real bar.
The team counted every sip to see if the adults copied the helper.
What they found
All three adults matched the helper sip for sip.
When the helper drank heavily, they drank more.
When the helper drank lightly, they drank less.
The copycat effect showed up in both the lab and the bar.
How this fits with other research
Walker et al. (2020) got the same copycat result with rock-climbing moves.
They used expert videos instead of a live helper, but the principle held: watch, then do.
Yelton (1979) says we should ask, "Is this amount of change good?" The 1980 study shows social drinking sets that "good" level on the spot.
Iwata et al. (1990) looked at keeping weight off long-term. Their work reminds us that one modeled session is only a start; lasting change needs more tools.
Why it matters
You can use peer models to nudge adult clients up or down in real time. In a group outing, seat a light drinker next to a client who over-drinks. The copycat effect can give you a quick foothold while you teach longer self-control skills.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Two experiments were designed to examine modeling influences on alcoholics' alcohol consumption. Three male alcoholics were paired with confederates, posing as alcoholics. In Experiment 1, alcoholic-confederate pairs participated in a 1-hour taste-rating task, which involved rating different wines on a list of adjectives. Experiment 2 consisted of 1-hour ad lib access to wine in a naturalistic bar setting. In both experiments, confederates alternated 15-minute periods of heavy and light consumption, drinking fluids resembling wine. The amount of wine consumed by alcoholics in each period was secretly recorded and the data examined on a single subject basis. In Experiment 1, two subjects increased and decreased consumption along with their confederate. The third subject followed the confederate's pattern only after the confederate demonstrated heavy consumption. All three subjects varied consumption with the confederate during Experiment 2, performed later on the same day. These results suggest that alcoholics' alcohol consumption can be modified by the social influences of modeling. The implications of this finding for the loss of control hypothesis and alcoholism treatment maintenance were discussed.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1980 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1980.13-355