Citation

Walter NT, Mutic S, Markett S, Montag C, Klein AM, Reuter M. Alcohol Alcohol. 2011; 46(6): 680-685.

Affiliation

Department of Psychology, University of Bonn, Kaiser-Karl-Ring 9, 53111 Bonn, Germany.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Oxford University Press)

DOI

10.1093/alcalc/agr082

PMID

21749998

Abstract

AIMS: To investigate the effects of actual and expected alcohol intake on the detection and interpretation of the basic emotions happiness and anger in facial expressions. METHODS: n = 102 healthy participants performed a dynamic emotion recognition task before and after receiving a drink which contained either a moderate alcohol dose or no alcohol in a double-blind design. RESULTS: The actual alcohol intake had no effect on detecting and interpreting facial expressions. However, subjects who expected to drink alcohol judged facial expressions significantly more often as happy. No effects were observable for the recognition of anger in facial expressions. CONCLUSION: Our results corroborate recent studies that found that the belief of consuming alcohol does not increase anger recognition or aggressive behavior but decreases aggression and social stress.

Language: en